arXiv.org and Physics Education

The website arXiv.org (pronounced archive) is a free online resource for full-text articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, nonlinear science, and quantitative biology that has existed for about 15 years. Available directly at http://www.arXiv.org, this e-print archive is searchable. As of Jan. 3, 2007, arXiv had open access to 401,226 e-prints in the topic areas.1 Those who sign up for an ID and password can also sign up for daily submission abstract emails for specific subject classes of arXiv, including physics education, physics and society, and history of physics. Founded and developed by Paul Ginsparg when he was at Los Alamos National Laboratory, arXiv's original name was the LANL preprint archive or xxx.lanl.gov. The location and name changed after Ginsparg moved to the physics department at Cornell University. Today, arXiv is hosted and operated by Cornell University library. Mirror sites for arXiv exist worldwide.2