American Physical Society Journal Archive Mirrored at Cornell (April 20, 2001)

COLLEGE PARK, Md., April 20, 2001 - Building on an effort to ensure uninterrupted and enduring access to American Physical Society (APS) journals, the APS and Cornell University Library have entered into an agreement in which Cornell University Library will maintain a mirror copy of APS journal archives. The mirror will be accessible to anyone on the Internet in accordance with the APS's pricing policies.

"Last year the APS took an important first step by agreeing to archive our content with the Library of Congress. This agreement with Cornell represents another major step forward in making concrete our commitment to 24/7 electronic access to this archive via the Physical Review Online Archive (PROLA). We expect to take further steps in the future to improve international access while continuing to work with the library community to secure the archive's long term future," says APS Journals Product Development Manager Mark Doyle.

The visible mirror consists of PROLA back-issues, from 1893-1997, of the following publications: Physical Review Series I and II, Physical Review A- E, Physical Review Letters, and Reviews of Modern Physics. The mirror will also serve as a backup to current content in the event that the APS's primary servers are not available.

"This is a particularly appropriate partnership for Cornell University Library because Physical Review was established at Cornell University in 1893," commented Carl A. Kroch University Librarian Sarah Thomas. "I am delighted to welcome Physical Review back to Cornell in its electronic form. The Library's mission is both to preserve and to disseminate scholarly information. Through this agreement, Cornell University Library and the American Physical Society will be working together to archive and to provide access to PROLA, the primary record of research in the physical sciences."

The APS represents more than 42,000 physicists worldwide and is a leader in the creation of e-journals. Publication of Physical Review moved from Cornell University to APS in 1913 when it became the first APS journal. Cornell University Library is a leader in researching and developing digital collections and is currently participating in grants from the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to digitize science information and to develop architecture, metadata services, and archiving capabilities for digital library initiatives.