Ariadne: a standards compliant and integrated electronic document delivery system

摘要

This paper describes the Ariadne system, an integrated electronic document delivery system within the currently offered services at university libraries in The Netherlands. Its main goal is to deliver multimedia documents produced on end-users' demand as soon as possible. The delivery is carried out either by hardcopy, facsimile or electronic delivery at the end-users' workstation. Additionally, even when the required item is not held at the local library, the turnaround time for its delivery is reduced to the minimum. One of the most significant features that Ariadne offers is its compliance to commonly accepted standards in the libraries and network environment, which are strictly obeyed. In this respect GEDI, an emerging standard in electronic document interchange, is briefly mentioned. Ariadne's workings, its system integration into the library and network environment and some future developments related to electronic document delivery are discussed. However, the aspect of copyright is beyond the scope of this paper.