APS Online Journals Available Free in U.S. Public Libraries

["APS ASSOCPUB" <assocpub@aps.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APS ONLINE JOURNALS AVAILABLE FREE IN U.S. PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Ridge, NY, 28 July 2010: The American Physical Society (APS) 
announces a new public access initiative that will give readers 
and researchers in public libraries in the United States full use 
of all online APS journals, from the most recent articles back to 
the first issue in 1893, a collection including over 400,000 
scientific research papers.  APS will provide this access at no 
cost to participating public libraries, as a contribution to 
public engagement with the ongoing development of scientific 
understanding.

APS Publisher Joseph Serene observed that "public libraries have 
long played a central role in our country's intellectual life, 
and we hope that through this initiative they will become an 
important avenue for the general public to reach our research 
journals, which until now have been available only through the 
subscriptions at research institutions that currently cover the 
significant costs of peer review and online publication."

Librarians can obtain access by accepting a simple online site 
license and providing valid IP addresses of public-use computers 
in their libraries 
(http://librarians.aps.org/account/public_access_new). The 
license requires that public library users must be in the library 
when they read the APS journals or download articles. Initially 
the program will be offered to U.S. public libraries, but it may 
include additional countries in the future.

"The Public Library program is entirely consistent with the APS 
objective to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics," said 
Gene Sprouse, APS Editor in Chief. "Our goal is to provide access 
to everyone who wants and needs our journals and this shift in 
policy represents the first of several steps the APS is taking 
towards that goal."

--Contact: Amy Halsted,
Special Assistant to the Editor in Chief,
halsted@aps.org,
631-591-4232

--About the APS:  The American Physical Society is the world's 
largest professional body of physicists, representing close to 
48,000 physicists in academia and industry worldwide.  It has 
offices in Ridge, NY; Washington, DC; and College Park, MD.  For 
more information: www.aps.org.