  The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) grew up with and has been riding
the waves of the Information Age, closely monitoring and anticipating the needs
of its end-users. By now, all professional astronomers are using the ADS on a
daily basis, and a substantial fraction have been using it for their entire
professional career. In addition to being an indispensable tool for
professional scientists, the ADS also moved into the public domain, as a tool
for science education. In this paper we will highlight and discuss some aspects
indicative of the impact the ADS has had on research and the access to
scholarly publications.
  The ADS is funded by NASA Grant NNX09AB39G
