June 13, 2008 - The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) has arranged for the SPIE Digital Library to become available free of charge to researchers and students in more than 90 countries served by ICTP’s electronic Journals Delivery Service (eJDS). Through eJDS, ICTP distributes scientific articles via email to individual scientists in institutions with insufficient or unaffordable Internet connection. 

 “The eJDS is aimed at individual scientists in low-income countries who often suffer from professional isolation and poor facilities,” said Lucio Visitin, ICTP Acting Library Head. “Thanks to the generous participation of SPIE, ICTP through eJDS can provide them with quick access to the invaluable scientific content of the SPIE Digital Library.”

Content provided by eJDS focuses on photonics, optics, physics, and mathematics. Under the arrangement with SPIE, participating researchers will have access at no charge to the SPIE Digital Library’s 260,000 technical articles from the Society’s journals and conference proceedings.

"Joining the  eJDS program is an incommensurable help for scientists from developing countries,” said Dr. Mama Nsangou, senior lecturer in the department of physics at the Universityof Ngaoundere, Cameroon. “Access to papers published by SPIE through eJDS enhances the research capability of these scientists by providing an opportunity to do good bibliographic reviews in the domain of optical engineering."

“I am very proud that SPIE is able to further one of our missions as a professional society, that of connecting scientists and engineers for the betterment of humanity,” said SPIE Publications Committee Chair Harry Levinson of Advanced Micro Devices.