GRB Coordinates Network (GCN): A status report

The GRB Coordinates Network (GCN) continues to deliver locations of GRBs to instruments and observers in real-time (a few seconds)-while the burst is still bursting-so that they can make multi-band simultaneous follow-up observations. This was routine during the GRO-BATSE years and has resumed with HETE. This goal was realized with the optical detection of the burst counterpart for GRB990123 by the ROTSE instrument [1]. A brief review of the function and capabilities of the GCN system is given. Complementing the real-time location Notices, the GCN Circulars allow the follow-up observers to share the results of their observations rapidly with the community. A status report on recent improvements to the GCN system and a list of future improvements is given. .