Bell Labs Redux? [AP-S Turnstile]

As I reported in a previous column [1], from July 1922 to December 1983 (when it ceased publication), the Bell System Technical Journal (BSTJ) published not only original research in the field of electrical communications, but also reprints on ??important research and development work in the communication field generally so that the results of such work may be given greater publicity and become of greater value to communication engineers.?? Around the time the column appeared, Alcatel-Lucent (the current owner of Bell Labs) had just made the entire BSTJ archive (1922-1983) available online to the global research community at a dedicated Web site (http://bstj.bell-labs.com/). While that Web site is no longer active, the access to the BSTJ archive is easier than ever, thanks to a new partnership between Alcatel-Lucent and the IEEE [2]. More than 6,000 articles have been added to the IEEE Xplore Digital Library [3], covering such topics as photonics, communication technologies, and software systems. Moreover, articles from the Bell Labs Technical Journal (which succeeded the old BSTJ) are also accessible through IEEE Xplore. However, the quarterly print edition of the Bell Labs Technical Journal will be discontinued, and replaced by an online-only bimonthly version [3].