A Sad Farewell to Scientific AmericanI have a personal soft spot for the magazine, due to the articles below published by my father and my cousin in Scientific American:
Posted: January 18, 2010 at 9:00 am by Sue Vazakas in Online Resources |
Once upon a time (1845), there was a magazine called The Advocate of Industry and Enterprise, and Journal of Mechanical and Other Improvements. Soon, with the mercifully shorter title of Scientific American, this publication became the way that the country kept informed about progress and events in science and technology.
Written for the layperson, Scientific American is a chronicle of American innovation. The phonograph, the automobile, televisions, computers, rocket ships, the artificial heart - SA’s writers, including more than 160 Nobel laureates, explain it all. However, at the end of 2009, Eisenhower Library stopped receiving print copies, and at the end of May of this year, we will no longer have online access to issues from January 1, 1995 to May 31, 2010.
This sad circumstance is the result of the sale of the magazine to Nature Publishing Group. Nature tripled the prices and ignored all pleas to reconsider its treatment of America’s oldest continuously published magazine. Libraries across the US are refusing to continue subscribing under these conditions, and MSEL’s librarians made this same decision, with heavy hearts.
MSEL does own many years in various formats, including online (1845-1908; 1998-2003), print (1927-2009), and microfilm (1845-2007). (Or, read articles from 1846-1869 at Cornell University Library’s “Making of America” site.)
We don’t yet know whether Nature will allow any other vendors to carry current issues, but we’ll keep you informed.
1. Sci Am. 1964 Apr;210:29-37.
THE HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS.
BARRON F, JARVIK ME, BUNNELL S Jr.
2. Sci Am. 1981 Jan;244(1):74-80.
THE TOTAL ARTIFICIAL HEART
JARVIK RK.