REDD: an electronic document delivery model for Australia

Kingsley Gurney, Systems, University of Queensland Library, University of Queensland, Qld, 4072, Australia. Phone +61 7 3365 6258 Fax: +61 7 3365 6888 Email: k.gurney@library.uq.edu.au

Introduction

Background

REDD

Emailing MIME encoded scanned documents had been shown to be a viable option for Document Delivery in the MARCEL project in Colorado (Smith,Delaney,1996). However it was felt that a "User Friendly" interface to a more integrated system was desirable to handle the document delivery load at the participating institutions.

The aims of the Regional Document Delivery Project, now known as REDD, were:

• to deliver MIME encoded scanned documents via email
• to facilitate research by providing the rapid request and delivery of materials in the collaborating institutions
• to develop a document delivery prototype which could be used by other institutions

There were many advantages inherent in using Web technology, the Internet and MIME:

• Web browsers handle many of the features required for an interface to the system, such as menuing and forms.
• Web browsers are becoming the defacto standard interface for users in the academic arena and outside it. To use a web form to request an item is rapidly becoming second nature to a large section of the populace.
• The Web Server Common Gateway Interface can be used to process form data and pass variables to and from other programs
• Users may access Web servers from any where in the world to place document requests.
• The Internet offers access via email to libraries and document suppliers all over the world. It is possible to request documents not only from the project's participants but also from any institution in the world capable of receiving email.
• Email has the advantage over the other accepted formats for image transfer (i.e. file transfer protocol (ftp)) of not requiring both the sending and receiving sites to be connected to the Internet at the same time.
• Standard MIME encoded image files are readily converted back to their original form. Some mailers can be configured to do this automatically

Principal software used is:

• Web Server - REDD was developed for the Windows 3.1 environment using Win-HTTPD by Robert Denny. The system is currently being transported to the Windows 95 environment using O'Reilly's Website, also by Robert Denny
• Web Browser - Netscape Navigator 2.0, because it was widely used in the three participating institutions, but any form enabled browser would do.
• Mailer - Pegasus Mail for Windows by David Harris. Originally the DOS version was used, as we required it to be run from the command line. However when it became possible to run the Windows version from the command line we moved to it because it also offered the possibility of accessing a POP3 server. REDD is therefore able to run over any TCP/IP network providing a POP3 server is available.
• Scanning - Hewlett Packard's DeskScan II (which came bundled with the HP 4c scanners)
• CGI scripts (and some other original programming) - Microsoft Visual Basic Version 3.0
• Other sofware included UUDEVIEW as the Base64 decoder, (the mailer handled the MIME encoding), LAUNCHER to start up the scanner from within the Web browser, various preferred tiff file viewers.

The electronic document request form has been enthusiastically received by the academic and student communities involved, with more than 700 users registered at the three original instutions. User initiated requests have been sent and filled successfully since March, 1996 between the three original participants. The University of Southern Queensland joined the trial in May, 1996 and REDD will be extended to include several other institutions in Queensland and New South Wales over the next few months.

End user delivery will be trialled firstly by emailing the scanned images directly to users with MIME enabled mailers. Later, a system of storing the image files on a server and emailing a request specific URL to the user will be investigated.

Other possible developments include:

• Sending image files as multipage tiffs.
• Upgrading scanner functionality
• Incorporating any software and/or international standards arising from the Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software Project (JEDDS).
• Investigate other software that will handle email and image file viewing

A demonstration showing most of the features of REDD may be viewed at http://130.102.42.183/reddlook/redd.htm

Conclusion

References

Copyright