CORDIS Archive

Updated: 23 APR 98

Theme

Access to and/or delivery of documents (Theme 14)

Project description

The objective of the project was to develop and test a prototype of a fast electronic document ordering and document delivery system based on an already existing digital journal image archive and in-house delivery system.

Although the facilities for on-line searching and on-line ordering have dramatically improved over the last years, the access to the actual documents still requires a substantial amount of time. The growing significance of on-line ordering has inevitably led to an increased need for rapid provision of documents.

The project aimed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the setting up of a document delivery service in the area of chemical journals by combining on-line searching, electronic ordering and electronic delivery. The system is fast (5 minutes from order to [fax] delivery), user friendly , reasonably priced and economically viable.

Technical approach

FASTDOC comprised twelve work-packages, as follows:

• Specifications , with project plan, hardware and software acquisitions and system development;
• Delivery Component , being the installation of software tools for the integration of fax servers;
• Receiving/Administration Components to install and test the LAN, mail server and administration computer;
• In-house Database & PC Ordering to install ordering component on local systems with connection to public networks;
• On-line Host Ordering to enhance document order functions of the STN host retrieval software and create order transfer components using an X.400 mailbox.;
• Alpha Testing of order and delivery components;
• On-line Host Implementation by installing the ordering system on the on-line host;
• Beta testing of the fully operational system;
• Implementation as a routine service in the partner libraries;
• User Questionnaire for better understanding of user demand relating to a global fast document delivery service;
• Statistical Evaluations of user behaviour;
• Dissemination of Results , culminating, at the end of the project, with a specially convened workshop.

Tests were carried out in Germany, Spain and Greece with the involvement of associated partners.

Key issues

• examination of user requirements, and national infrastructures;
• development and integration of delivery, ordering and administrative components;
• copyright;
• user statistics.

Impact and results

The significance of the project lied in the high speed of document ordering and delivery and in the size of the database - a thirty-year archive of chemical information, scanned to high standards - now shown by the prototype to be potentially available for distribution on demand, over different channels, to anywhere in Europe.

The primary beneficiaries were the libraries and the end-users. At the end of the project a workshop was organised in Patras. The proceedings of this workshop have been published (ISBN 3-00-000829-2).

Deliverables

Deliverables received are of confidential or restricted classification because of commercial implications. Apart from the implemented prototype, they include:

• Detailed project specification;
• Delivery component descriptions;
• Receiving and administration components;
• In-house database and PC order-ing report;
• Two reports on On-line host ordering.
• Results of user questionnaires and recommendations;
• Report on alpha tests;
• User statistics;
• Final project report.

Coordinator

Other Partners