Astronomical observatory publications: information exchange before the Internet era

TL;DR

This paper explores the historical exchange of astronomical observatory publications before the Internet, emphasizing the importance of physical collections and their current digitization status.

Contribution

It investigates the uniqueness and availability of historical observatory publication collections, highlighting their significance in preserving astronomical knowledge.

Findings

Many ancient publications remain undigitized and are only accessible through physical collections.

The recent donation of a collection prompted an analysis of observatory representation.

Collections vary in content and accessibility, underscoring the need for digitization efforts.

Abstract

For decades, perhaps even centuries, the exchange of publications between observatories was the most important source of information on new astronomical results, either in the form of observational data or new scientific theories. In particular, small observatories or institutions used this method. The exchange of physical material between observatories has now been replaced by the exchange of information via the Internet. Yet much of the ancient material has never been digitized and can only be found in the few existing collections of observatory publications. A recent donation of such a collection from the University of Copenhagen to our own library at the University of Southern Denmark has led us to investigate the uniqueness of such collections: Which observatories and publications are represented in the collections that still exist today? We also examine the availability of the material in the collections.