English

It was twenty years ago today ...

Digital Libraries 2011-09-14 v2 Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Other Condensed Matter General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory History and Overview Physics and Society Quantum Physics

Abstract

To mark the 20th anniversary of the (14 Aug 1991) commencement of hep-th@xxx.lanl.gov (now arXiv.org), I've adapted this article from one that first appeared in Physics World (2008), was later reprinted (with permission) in Learned Publishing (2009), but never appeared in arXiv. I trace some historical context and early development of the resource, its later trajectory, and close with some thoughts about the future. This version is closer to my original draft, with some updates for this occasion, plus an astounding 252^5 added footnotes.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1108.2700,
  title  = {It was twenty years ago today ...},
  author = {Paul Ginsparg},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1108.2700},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

9 pages. v2: additional edifying comments interspersed throughout

R2 v1 2026-06-21T18:49:56.317Z