Association of Research Libraries (ARL®)

John J. Regazzi, President

Engineering Information Inc.

At Engineering Information Inc. (Ei), we heard a clear new market need for the delivery of information and documents, and saw a variety of new technologies which would allow us to respond to those market needs. Such is the genesis of the Ei Reference Desk.

Currently the need has been for a single, comprehensive yet flexible means of accessing a broad range of information resource -- an electronic library. Ei has responded by developing a solution simple enough for the average library patron to use while at the same time sophisticated enough to meet the demands of the professional researcher.

It's called the Ei Reference Desk, and is an integrated software package designed to take full advantage of the powerful capabilities of today's desktop computers. Running under the Microsoft Windows environment, the Ei Reference Desk provides online access, offline CD-ROM searching, access to Ei's own Table of Contents service and the ability to capture orders for full-text documents from any of these three sources. Ei is then able to receive and fulfill those orders in a variety of ways.

The Ei Reference Desk currently support 386 and 486 processor based IBM and compatible personal computers. Each function of the Reference Desk has been implemented as a separate Windows application. This arrangement, together with the extensive application management features built into the Windows environment, gives the end-user a great deal of flexibility in choosing how to run the Reference Desk so as to best meet individual needs or preferences.

Provided the user's personal computer is equipped with an internal network connection to the Internet, Ei's databases and document delivery services may be remotely accessed using a Windows-based system. The multi-tasking capabilities of the Windows environment enables the Reference Desk to run the remote network application in the background. Thus, while awaiting the delivery of a document, a user has the advantage of simultaneously running other applications. Particularly significant is the ease with which any bibliographic record may be captured and passed to the order module should the user require the full-text of the cited document.

The versatility of the Windows environment allows a table of contents service called Ei Page One to be run in conjunction with the other Windows-based components of the Ei Reference Desk.

Ei is introducing the valuable new Table of Contents service under EiDisc, initially to be available exclusively through the Ei Reference Desk. This truly unique service is begin developed both to provide more timely access to the articles indexed and to extend the scope of material available to users.

The tables of contents from a significant portion of the approximately 5,000 journals and conferences abstracted at Ei each year will be reconstructed in an ASCII-based format. Ei will further augment the total number of titles available by scanning the contents pages from additional journals and conferences. Regardless of whether the table of contents for a particular title be displayed in ASCII or as a bit-mapped image, the user may order the full-text of any article on the page. The system will automatically generate an order record and pass it to the order module for any articles the user selects.

The order module is an integral component of the Ei Reference Desk and provides several important functions. This application enables the user to review any orders that have been captured from online and CD-ROM searches or generated by the Table of Contents service. In addition a user has the option of entering a manual order by filling out an electronic order form displayed on the screen. Options to delete specific order records or to clear the entire file are also provided. After the items selected have been verified, the user need simple release the order file for transmission to Ei, at which point the system will automatically dial Ei's Document Delivery Service (EiDDS) and upload the order file via the modem.

Alternatively, the user may print out the order file and either fax, mail or even phone in the order to Ei, or to an interlibrary loan network. A customer profile is also maintained in the order module. Such important data as ship-to addresses, bill-to addresses, payment and delivery options are entered and easily modified by the user in this profile.

Delivery Options

Delivery options are as varied as are the ordering options. At the user's request, Ei can mail documents, send them via Federal Express, fax them or even optically scan them and transmit the resulting bit-mapping image files directly back to the user's computer via the Internet. This last option is accomplished through proprietary software which compresses and converts the image files so as to make them compatible with current transmission standards. Included in the Reference Desk is a special document display module which is designed to decompress and convert back the file so that the user may view it on the screen or print out a hard copy. The articles are scanned at 300 dpi and retain that resolution when printed by a laser printer.

The use of images by both the Table of Contents service and the document display components of the Ei Reference Desk is particularly well suited to the graphic nature of the Windows environment. As Windows applications, they make complete use of many sophisticated features such as zooming, re-sizing, or inverting images. The printing of whole or partial images is also supported. These advanced capabilities are possible using any monitors or printers supported by Windows.

Enhancements planned

With the Ei Reference Desk now completing beta-testing sites, a number of enhancements are already being planned. These include optional passwords on the various applications, particularly the EiDDS order module and access to online; detailed online help (beyond that already built into Windows); and computability with local and wide area networks.

The broad functionality of this new concept turns a personal computer into a personal information workstation. As each of the major components is a separate Windows application, the user may tailor its use to meet specific needs. The results from a local CD-ROM search may be automatically uploaded to a new order file while viewing documents received from a previous day's order. Pages from the Table of Contents service can be printed out for later perusal while the results of an online search are being passed to the order module. The number of scenarios is limited only by the number of potential users.

With general release of the Ei Reference Desk planned for 1994, anyone with a personal computer can soon put an electronic library on his or her desktop.