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this archive is equally impressive, having reached several hundred thousand per day. The archive has become an indispensable tool for conducting research in physics.

At the same time, the American Physical Society has dramatically improved its use of information technology in the publication of research results, establishing important links with the Los Alamos archive. The society is to be commended for reducing the costs of publishing its journals and for supporting the needs of the physics community. It should continue to do so, promoting the use of electronic methods and asserting its preeminent role in the processes of peer review and validation of research results.

Recommendation 9. The federal government, together with the physics community, should develop a coordinated approach for the support of bibliographic and experimental databases and data-mining tools. The use of open standards to foster mutual compatibility of all databases should be stressed. Physicists should be encouraged to make use of these information technology tools for education as well as research. The bibliographic archive based at Los Alamos National Laboratory has played an important role and it should continue to be supported.