Access to the Astronomical Literature through the NASA Astrophysics Data System from Developing Countries

The Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is the search system of choice for Astronomers world-wide. The searchable database contains over 2.6 million searchable records and over two million scanned article pages from about 280,000 articles. The ADS is accessed from almost 130 countries. In order to improve access from different parts of the world, we maintain nine mirror sites of the ADS in Brazil, Chile, China, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, and Russia. Both the search system and the scanned articles in the ADS can be accessed through email. Email can be used by users that are on slow or unreliable Internet connections. It allows access to the ADS for users who do not have a connection that is good enough to use a web browser. We are currently in the process of developing a stand-alone ADS system that can run without Internet access in libraries. The ADS is funded by NASA Grant NCC5-189. It is available at: http://ads.harvard.edu