Multimode Delivery of Multimedia Information

摘要

Increasing numbers of libraries are using the Internet for document delivery, not only for interlibrary loan, but for delivering documents directly to the patron's desktop computer. The widespread adoption of software such as Ariel and DocView is making this possible. Ariel, a product of the Research Libraries Group, converts paper-based documents to monochrome (black and white) bitmapped images, and delivers them over the Internet. The National Library of Medicine's DocView is primarily designed for library patrons to receive, display and manage documents received from Ariel systems. While libraries and their patrons are beginning to reap the benefits of this new technology, there still are areas where improvements can be made. The Communications Engineering Branch of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, an R&D division of NLM, is developing software code-named HotMed to increase the options for delivering library information over the Internet. For instance, HotMed adds a third method for one-time information delivery, via the World Wide Web (WWW), to the two methods already used by Ari8el and DocView: File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Email. HotMed also permits delivery of multiple files to multiple recipients, and goes beyond monochrome bitmapped images to deliver any multimedia file type, such as color and grayscale images, audio and video information, and word processing documents. Finally, by incorporating a Java applet (MedJava) for delivering documents via the WWW, the HotMed software gives the librarian a new option that potentially solves several problems commonly associated with Internet document delivery. This paper describes the design of the prototype HotMed software and shows how it can aid the librarian in delivering many types of library information over the Internet to the patron's desktop.