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Is there a place online where one can download papers that have appeared in the Astérisque if "your institution subscribes"? I am especially interested in back issues: Astérisque series published a lot of interesting papers which I would like to read, yet it seems to me the only way to access them is to take a trip to your library and pray that it has them in print. This being ridiculous in 21st century, I wonder if there is a place online with *.pdf versions of the issues...

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    $\begingroup$ Heaven forfend that something is not in PDF $\endgroup$
    – Yemon Choi
    May 7, 2012 at 19:48
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    $\begingroup$ For things "available if your library subscribes" you can consult your library... $\endgroup$ May 7, 2012 at 21:03
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    $\begingroup$ Asterisque is available from Google Books. You can download complete copies of books on Google Books using the site bookworm.evil.so. It takes about 10 days, but in the end it gets the job done. $\endgroup$ May 8, 2012 at 13:35
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    $\begingroup$ It is horribly organized on google books. $\endgroup$ May 8, 2012 at 21:10
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    $\begingroup$ I'm surprised this question was closed, and astonished that there are two votes to delete. There are several highly upvoted answers, with valuable information. Hands off, please! $\endgroup$ Jun 2, 2017 at 23:16

6 Answers 6

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The first 180 volumes of Astérisque are now electronically available for free

http://www.numdam.org/journals/AST/

EDIT: now 300+ volumes

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I requested Mme Hélène Falavard of Numdam some years ago to digitise the old volumes of Astérisque. Here is her reply (12/12/2005):

la collection Astérisque n'est malheureusement pas prévue dans notre programme de numérisation car la Société mathématique de France n'a pour l'instant pas donné son accord. Peut-être cela changera-t-il un jour ......

Update 2/6/2017 The whole Astérisque collection is currently being digitised and will appear before the end of this year on the Numdam site. --- European mathematical society

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The issue of providing online access to Asterisque is a difficult one. The SMF offers electronic versions of its other journals, and the subscription rates for these has apparently significantly dropped. Asterisque is now the most profitable publication of the SMF and there is a lot of reluctance to join the 21st century and jeopardize this profitability. I agree with Obelisque that the best solution is to buy the old issues, but the ones that are most in demand are also out of print. All of these topics are currently being discussed (electronic versions, reprinting the back issues, ...). It is also not impossible that the Bourbaki seminars will soon be available online, maybe with a five year buffer, as the contract beween Bourbaki and the SMF gives total freedom to Bourbaki.

EDIT : of course, one reason why the standard model for journals does not quite apply to Asterisque is because it's part journal, part book series...

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  • $\begingroup$ "It is also not impossible that the Bourbaki seminars will soon be available online, maybe with a five year buffer" I believe they already are, with a ten year buffer (cf my answer). $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    May 8, 2012 at 9:06
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One can also buy the volumes; old issues are pretty cheap (when not out of print).

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    $\begingroup$ +1 for the username w.r.t. this question. $\endgroup$ May 7, 2012 at 21:13
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    $\begingroup$ The username had been "Obelisque" before being changed... $\endgroup$ Oct 4, 2014 at 4:21
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In general the answer is 'no'. There seems to be no offer of the SMF, which produces Asterisque, to buy electronic versions; see the SMF catlogue offering only printed versions.

If however the paper is from a Bourbaki Seminar talk (before 2002) then, yes, one can find this on http://www.numdam.org/ even 'free for all'; this should be a direct link

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    $\begingroup$ The Bourbaki seminars that are available on Numdam are the versions that the authors hand out before their talk. They're not the final versions that are published in Asterisque. $\endgroup$ May 8, 2012 at 7:55
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    $\begingroup$ @Laurent Berger: Could you please back up and or recheck the content of your comment? I doubt what you say is true. I did not check each and every (recent) year, but for example the most recent available definetly seems like the Asterisque version, and not the one distributed before the seminar. (Contiously numbered over the full volume, an SMF and asterisque at the end of pages, the full table of content,...) Perhaps the logo/frontpage on the overview page was confusing? Yet if one clicks through to the years, one gets the asterisque frontpage instead (or for earlier years LNM and so on). $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    May 8, 2012 at 9:10
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    $\begingroup$ @quid: yes you're right. In my defense, the "Astérisque" style of 10 years ago looks very much like the "brochure" style of today. $\endgroup$ May 8, 2012 at 16:07
  • $\begingroup$ @Laurent Berger: thanks for the clarification! $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    May 9, 2012 at 12:32
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The Asterisque collection has been partially digitised and is now online for subscribers starting from year 2015. See the website of the SMF, which says:

Astérisque : from the year 2015 (and volume 367-368), the series is accessible on the SMF server as they are released for subscribed members. A volume may be presented component by component (eg article by article for the annual Bourbaki volume). Previous volumes (1-366, from 1973 to 2014) are offered for sale and are not available online.

and also

The Astérisque series is being digitized by the Mathdoc Cell within its Mersenne program: an online publication is planned by 2018. Other online releases are being studied, according to modalities to be specified.

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