Surface Science Spectra: a hybrid journal-database

Database collections were quite minimal in surface spectroscopies in 1990, when the American Vacuum Society (now named AVS, The Science and Technology Society) began to develop a spectral database, called Surface Science Spectra (or SSS); http://sss.avs.org. (Surface spectroscopies include X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger electron spectroscopy, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and other spectroscopic methods.) The AVS foresaw that producing a high-quality spectral database would be a benefit to the user community Furthermore, because the mission of the AVS includes education, professional growth of its members, support of research, and dissemination of knowledge, the society especially wanted the scientific community involved in developing and contributing to the database.