CERN Scientific Information Service

We will host Open Research Europe, a diamond open access platform initiated by the European Commission in 2021 and now being relaunched by a new funding consortium of national research funders from 11 European countries with continued support by the EC.

The new platform will launch in autumn of this year under https://ore.eu

Learn more: https://home.cern/news/news/cern/cern-host-europes-flagship-open-access-publishing-platform

CERN to host Europe’s flagship open access publishing platform

In an important step for , CERN has been selected to host a new phase of Open Research Europe (ORE), an initiative supported by the EEuropean Commissionand a new funding consortium of European national funding agencies and research organisations.

Find out more: https://home.cern/news/news/cern/cern-host-europes-flagship-open-access-publishing-platform

In collaboration with Arts at CERN, the CERN Library was delighted to host the inaugural session of the new talk series "Meet the Artists" on 5 March. The event featured artists Céline Manz and Juan Sorrentino, recipients of the Arts at CERN Connect Argentina Residency. The discussion explored their artistic research at the intersection of art and science, reflecting on projects developed in collaboration with scientists and inspired by phenomena such as cosmic rays and subatomic processes.
Following their research at the Pierre Auger Observatory and their arrival at CERN, the artists shared insights from their residency and engaged in a stimulating exchange with the CERN community.
A big thank you to the artists and to everyone who joined us for this inspiring dialogue between artistic practice and scientific exploration!

Last week, the CERN Archives & Library had the pleasure of welcoming our colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross Archives and Library. We were delighted to host them for a guided visit of the CERN Library and Bookshop, where we presented our collections and services and exchanged ideas on topics such as open science, library and archives management, and collection curation.
During the visit, we also showcased a selection of archival documents and photographs highlighting different moments of CERN’s history, including the signature of the founding agreement and the laying of the first stone, early sketches of the campus and its first experiments, the work of the “scanning girls” in identifying particle tracks, and a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1982.
It was a real pleasure to connect with fellow information professionals and share perspectives on preserving and providing access to knowledge. Thank you to our colleagues from the ICRC for the inspiring visit!

Join the CERN Archives and Library team! 🗃️📚
Application deadline is 9 April 2026

Library and Archives Specialist HomeJob offersSupport Services (Finance, HR, Legal, Procurement)Library and Archives Specialist Library and Archives Specialist Geneva, Switzerland OSI-SIS-AL-2026-55-LD Ideal start date: 01/06/2026 Apply now Before 09/04/2026 at 23:59 (Geneva Time) What you'll do You will engage in the cataloguing,...

Earlier this week, the CERN Archives & Library had the pleasure of welcoming students from a collaborative project between the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the Academy of Fine Arts Munich (AdkB), and Haus der Kunst, led by artist Armin Linke and organised by Arts at CERN. We were delighted to offer the group a guided tour of the Library and Bookshop, showcasing our collection and services.
Additionally, we exhibited archival documents and photographs related to a variety of subjects, including the founding of the Organization, the ALICE experiment of the Large Hadron Collider, Nobel Prize winner Wolfgang Pauli, and the history of women in physics.

to August 1972 🎩

Here we see James Lee Byars, an artist who visited CERN during several summers in the early 1970s. He is photographed here on the ISR site, with the water tower in the background.

Byars featured on the cover of the September 1972 issue of CERN Courier. The caption inside read: “One of the visitors who brought some colour into the CERN corridors during the summer.”

Art historian David Sewell later remarked that owning this issue of the magazine means owning one of Byars’ great works of art.

Discover that issue here: https://repository.cern/records/4mdqk-6qc89

to February 1963 🔎

Here we see CERN’s “scanning people” using the IEP apparatus to scan and measure track-chamber photographs.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, the Laboratory relied on these experts to visually inspect enormous quantities of film produced by particle detectors. The painstaking work helped scientists identify interesting interactions from particle collisions.

The process involved meticulous, eye-straining work carried out in shifts, often in dark rooms, with the aid of projectors.

to the winter of 1977 💫

Here we see Eliane de Modzelewska with her colleagues, finalising gifts for retiring Council members, Wolfgang Gentner and Jan Hendrik Bannier.

Eliane was a central and influential figure in CERN’s early history, serving from the Laboratory’s founding years as the Director-General’s trusted executive assistant.

She made major contributions to the Organisation’s operations, international relations, and public image during those early days.

: the gifts were made from pieces of glass that once formed part of a bubble chamber window.

A new collection has recently been added to the CERN Archives! The Files of Reinhard Budde (1926-2023) document the German physicist’s long and illustrious career at CERN, from 1954 until the early 1990s.

After studying bubble chambers under Jack Steinberger at Columbia University, Budde returned to CERN to help construct the 10-cm and 30-cm Hydrogen Bubble Chambers. Due to his expert knowledge of film, he was responsible for making scans of particles collisions in the chambers during various experiments. In addition to this work, Budde also served had a position as the secretary of the Super Proton Synchrotron Experiments Committee (SPSC) from 1976 to 1990.

Some highlights from the collection include the images below:

• A technical sketch drawn by Budde of the bubble chamber; the drawing shows parts of the chamber and how they would function.

• Construction of the 30 cm bubble chamber. The chamber started to be assembled in 1958, and it was meant to be used with the SC (Synchrocyclotron). The main difference of the new chamber with the predecessor was the integration of a horizontal magnetic field of 15 kG. After placing the chamber in the SC in 1959, the first run gave already remarkable results: tracks of cosmic rays and Compton electrons were observed in the chamber. During the first run of the 30cm bubble chamber (~50 hours), 49’000 pictures of tracks were taken.

• Scans taken inside the Bubble Chamber.

Want to explore more? Contact the CERN Archives, and learn more about the Budde collection here [https://cds.cern.ch/record/2936633?ln=en]

All images CERN Copyright.

Back in the day 🔙

to 1968. This image depicts a van de Graaff generator with its tank removed and top terminal exposed, being prepared for shipment to the Swansea University.

The generator served as an injector for the CERN Electron Storage and Accumulation Ring (CESAR), CERN’s first storage ring and the
machine that set CERN on course to the Intersecting Storage Rings and the Large Hadron Collider.

: The van de Graaff generator's tank was filled with pressurised extra-dry nitrogen to maintain voltage-holding.

Read more about CESAR: https://home.cern/news/news/cern/cesar-cerns-first-storage-ring