The project improved access to the online services of a major university library by implementation of hypertext interfaces to a variety of information resources including the online public access catalogue (OPAC). A number of groups of specific users have been identified and for each a detailed user requirement specification, based on information needs in relation to use of online resources, has been formulated. Hypertext interfaces to suit these specifications have been designed and developed. Issues such as language independence, the move to personal computer (PC) type environments for library end-users, graphic user interfaces (GUI) versus VT100 type interfaces and standards for data markup and hypertext are to be examined and evaluated.
The PC based interfaces will be widely applicable given both the increase in use of PCs in place of dedicated terminals and the increase in remote users of OPACs. HYPERLIB enjoys a considerable reputation both for making library information significantly more accessible without heavy cost implications and for the way it went beyond its project parameters to implement an acclaimed OPAC on the World Wide Web. Furthermore, the non-graphic interfaces developed using the VT100 subset can easily be implemented on existing systems.
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