Tracking Translations in a Digital Age: A Mix of Old and New Tools?

“Do you have any recommendations on how to access old foreign journals, especially translations?” This question from an MIT chemist provided an opportunity to investigate whether reference tools created decades ago still have a role today. Scientific societies and commercial publishers established cover-to-cover translation journals to increase access to work published outside the US. However, thousands of articles were translated and distributed as technical reports, resulting in a significant information ecosystem of paper documents, fiche and manual indexes. With today’s instant access to translator tools and robust databases, must these older sources be consulted to find translations before 1970? The results of our foray into this question have implications for access to the historical literature of atmospheric sciences.