The uniqueness of observatory publications
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Education and Heritage in the Era of Big Data in Astronomy
Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 367, 2021 © 2021 International Astronomical Union
R.M. Ros, B. Garcia, S. Gullberg, J. Moldon & P. Rojo, eds. DOI: 00.0000/X000000000000000X
The uniqueness of observatory publications
Ole Ellegaard1 and Bertil F. Dorch1,2
1
University Library of Southern Denmark,
SDU, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense, Denmark
email: oleell@bib.sdu.dk
2
Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy,
SDU, Campusvej 55, 5230 Odense, Denmark
arXiv:2104.12838v1 [astro-ph.IM] 26 Apr 2021
Abstract. Observatory publications comprise the work of local astronomers from observatories
around the world and are traditionally exchanged between observatories through libraries. How-
ever, large collections of observatory publications seem to be rare; or at the least rarely digitally
described or accessible on the Internet. Notable examples to the contrary are the Woodman
Astronomical Library at Wisconsin-Madison and the Dudley Observatory in Loudonville, New
York both in the US. Due to the irregularities in receiving material, the collections are generally
often incomplete both with respect to the observatories included as well as volumes. In order to
assess the unique properties of the collections, we summarize and compare observatories present
in our own as well as the collections from the Woodman Library and the Dudley Observatory.
Keywords. Observatory publications, Historical collections
1. Introduction
Observation publications (OPs) are considered to be of a high scientific standard and
is guaranteed through the reputation of the individual observatory and in their modern
form dates back to the middle of the 18th century (Holl & Vargha 2003). Initially, OPs
presents the results of the institutions’ own observations obtained with local equipment
and issued with or without peer review. OPs have been a cheap and very popular form of
knowledge exchange, and for many low-budget observatories an indispensable source of
information (Kaminska 1989). Today, almost no observatories exchange physical mate-
rial. Instead, information is exchanged either via institutional repositories or published in
international journal articles often allowing the inclusion of data as supplementary mate-
rial. A contributing factor is the globalization of astronomy. In fact, Crabtree (2018) does
not distinguish between OPs and regular journal articles. They appear to be standard
in the observatories’ bibliographic lists, which include observations as well as theoretical
work performed at the institution.
Holl & Vargha (2003) suggest that OPs should generally be maintained and communi-
cated via the Internet as an open access alternative to commercial journals. One obstacle
is the large amount of information on the observatory’s websites, which makes it difficult
to register in databases as well as search for specific information. Older OPs can still be
relevant and valuable (Coletti 2003): An example is photometry of variable stars. Many
observational publications are listed in NASA’s ADS database, and many documents
have been scanned (cf. adsabs.harvard.edu/historical.html). Large physical collec-
tions of OPs are rare and e.g. special examples are found in the United States at the
Woodman Library (cf. www.library.wisc.edu/astronomy) and the Dudley Observatory
(cf. dudleyobservatory.org/collections-overview).
The library at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) has recently acquired a large
collection of observatory publications from the now discontinued, historical library col-
1
2 Ole Ellegaard & Bertil F. Dorch
lections from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. The collection’s
material dates from a period of several centuries and consists of tables of observations,
bulletins, annual reports, circulars, newsletters, reprints etc. It has been collected for a
period of more than a hundred years at the observatory in Copenhagen. The oldest ma-
terial in the collection dates back to the 1700s. This collection is registered on catalogue
cards only, while lists from the Woodman Library and Dudley Observatory are available
on the Internet. To understand the importance and coverage, we examine the difference
between the material found in the Danish collection and the two American collections.
In practice, we compare the number of cities/observatories present, and also consider
a few examples of the difference between the types of publications from the individual
observatories.
2. Results
To be considered an observatory publication, a paper must base some or all of its con-
clusions on data from the observatory (Crabtree 2018). Publications of all three library
collections is registered under the city where the observatory is located. For some of the
largest cities are more than one observatory registered (Table 1).
Table 1. The total number of cities/observatories present in each library. In total 835 are
present. It represents 411 different towns/observatories (49% of the total number)
Denmark Wisconsin-Madison (W-M) Dudley Observatory (Dud)
319 264 252
Figure 1. Combination of cities/observatories in the Danish library collections.
There is a certain overlap between the different observatories present in the three
collections (Fig. 1). 83 occurrences of cities/observatories (26%) are unique and can only
be found in the Danish collection, 28 (11%) in the Wisconsin-Madison collection and
67 (27%) in the Dudley collection. Although the Dudley collection is the smallest it hasJD 11. The uniqueness of collections of observatory publications 3
the relatively largest number of unique observatories. Furthermore, it is obvious that the
stock in the different libraries from the same observatory is different in a number of cases
(Table 2). Material from the observatory in Buenos Aires is only present in the Danish
collection. Some series are incomplete at one library but can be supplemented at another
library. In some cases, individual volumes can be unique and can only be found in a
specific library. This illustrates that consulting more than one collection can be helpful.
Table 2. A few examples that illustrate the difference present in the three collections between
the number or kind of volumes published by the same observatory.
Observatory DK Collection V.M Collection Dudley Collection
Besançon Annales 1934-36, 1939-72 Annals v. 3, no. 1-3 Annals 1936-50
France Bulletin astronomique 1934-1944
1986-95 v. 4, no. 1-5, 1944-
Bulletin chronométrique 1955
1889-1902, 1904-25
Lowell, Annals 1898-1905 Annals Annals 1898-1905
Flagstaff Bulletins 1911-83 v. 1-3, 1898-1905 Bulletin 1903-78
Arizona Memoirs 1915 First catalog
(reprint) 1898
Memoirs 1915
Buenos Aires IAFE, Serie Publicaciones de Missing? Not present
registros. Tirada aparte
1-10, 1971-75, 14 1977
IAFE, 1-32, 45-47, 49-57, 59
1971-82
In case of the Danish collection, we register the span of years covered by all the volumes
of the individual observatory (Fig. 2). The median value of this interval indicates the ‘age’
of the volumes of individual observatories found in the collection.
Figure 2. The Danish collection: The graph illustrates the median value in the age range of
the publications present in the various observatories.4 Ole Ellegaard & Bertil F. Dorch
3. Discussion
The traditional OP has now been replaced by the more widespread publication in tradi-
tional journals. The former ‘free’ access via exchange of material relevant to astronomers
has almost stopped with consequences especially for countries with low library budgets,
although the situation has improved through publication in hybrid or green, open access
journals and local archives.
Furthermore, much information can be found on institutional websites, but problems
remain in terms of storage, registration and retrieval. Older OPs with astronomical mate-
rial such as observations may still be relevant (Fishburn 1989). The large ADS database
contains many records with OPs and in many cases also complete scans of the material.
Likewise, many OPs are found directly on the ADS Historical List also in scanned format,
but the coverage is far from complete.
A few libraries around the world still have quite large collections of older OPs in paper
format. Some of this material is recorded in ADS, based on the Astronomical Institution
collection at Wolbach Library, Harvard and supplemented by other collections (Coletti
2003), but other publications can only be found by searching the more or less complete
registers of the relevant libraries. These registers are often not part of the library’s main
registers. For example, the register in the Danish collection is present as a card catalogue,
and the Dudley collection is registered as incomplete items that are transferred directly
from cards. Not all cities/observatories are represented in the individual collections, as
shown by the current study. If the observatory happens to be registered in the collection,
our analysis shows that the material available varies considerably from library to library.
4. Conclusion
The Danish observatory collection represents the largest known number of unique cities
and observatories, followed by the Dudley Collection. Most volumes in the Danish collec-
tion represent the period 1910-1980, although a small dip in the number of observatories
in the period 1940-1950 was observed. The material received from the same observato-
ries also turned out to be different in many cases. As a result, we encourage astronomers
looking for different types of older, rare material that are hard to find to be aware of and
search ADS or in at least one major library that possesses a large observatory collection.
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