The „GWDG-Nachrichten für Benutzerinnen und Benutzer des Rechenzentrums“ (GWDG News for users of the data center), which is the official title of the publication that was initially referred to as an in-house magazine, has been published monthly since 1978. According to the initial objective, it was supposed to encourage communication between a large scientific data center and its users. Despite the rapid expansion of the information medium world wide web and other electronic information services in recent years, its significance has barely changed. The GWDG News - both electronically and as a printed edition - is still an integral part of the public relations of the GWDG and an important source of information for many users of the data center, as is shown by the current edition of 550 copies and an e-mail distribution list with currently about 150 addresses - not taking into account the unknown number of retrievals to the online edition.

When choosing the topics, the editors are constantly making an effort to find a balanced mix of current and important topics, both specific and of general interest, that are either relevant for all users, or sometimes specifically for a subset of users. Every month the GWDG News reports on a broad range of topics on scientific data processing. Of course it cannot be avoided that not all topics are taken into account. Sometimes users might be missing a specific topic in the GWDG News. Unfortunately, such notes or requests rarely reach the editors in order to respond accordingly.

Therefore we would like to encourage you, the readers of GWDG News, to notify us of such wishes. If you are missing a certain topic, which in your opinion may be important to other users, you can contact the editor, Dr. Thomas Otto, by e-mail at Thomas.Otto@gwdg.de. We will then consider whether and how we can implement the request, and hope that this will be the case as often as possible. Your feedback will help us to provide you currently and in the future with important and up-to-date information from the GWDG.

The (printed) GWDG News is free of charge for anyone interested. If you would like to join the mentioned mailing list, which regularly informs on the release of the current issue, please send an e-mail to gwdg@gwdg.de. You can also contact us at this address if you would like to receive the print version of the GWDG News.