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Fast Document Ordering and Document Delivery

Objective

The objective of the project is to develop and test a prototype of a fast electronic document ordering and document delivery system based on an already existing digital journal image archive and in-house delivery system.

Although the facilities for on-line searching and on-line ordering have dramatically improved over the last years, the access to the actual documents still requires a substantial amount of time. The growing significance of on-line ordering has inevitably led to an increased need for rapid provision of documents.

The project aims to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the setting up of a document delivery service in the area of chemical journals by combining on-line searching, electronic ordering and electronic delivery. The system should be fast (5 minutes from order to [fax] delivery), user friendly , reasonably priced and economically viable.
Impact and expected results:

The significance of the project lies in the high speed of document ordering and delivery and in the size of the database - a thirty-year archive of chemical information, scanned to high standards - now shown by the prototype to be potentially available for distribution on demand, over different channels, to anywhere in Europe.

The expected primary beneficiaries are the libraries and the end-users. At the end of the project a workshop will be organised.

Deliverables

Deliverables received to-date are of confidential or restricted classification because of commercial implications. Apart from the implemented prototype, they include:

Detailed project specification;
Delivery component descriptions;
Receiving and administration components;
In-house database and PC order-ing report;
Two reports on On-line host ordering.

Still to be delivered are: Results of user questionnaires and recommendations;
Report on alpha tests;
User statistics;
Final project report.
Technical approach:

FASTDOC comprised twelve work-packages, as follows:

Specifications, with project plan, hardware and software acquisitions and system development;
Delivery Component, being the installation of software tools for the integration of fax servers;
Receiving/Administration Components to install and test the LAN, mail server and administration computer;
In-house Database & PC Ordering to install ordering component on local systems with connection to public networks;
On-line Host Ordering to enhance document order functions of the STN host retrieval software and create order transfer components using an X.400 mailbox.;
Alpha Testing of order and delivery components;
On-line Host Implementation by installing the ordering system on the on-line host;
Beta testing of the fully operational system;
Implementation as a routine service in the partner libraries;
User Questionnaire for better understanding of user demand relating to a global fast document delivery service;
Statistical Evaluations of user behaviour;
Dissemination of Results, culminating, at the end of the project, with a specially convened workshop.

Tests will be carried out in Germany, Spain and Greece with the involvement of associated partners.

Key issues:

- examination of user requirements, and national infrastructures;
- development and integration of delivery, ordering and administrative components;
- copyright;
- user statistics.

Fields of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

Beilstein Institut
EU contribution
No data
Address
Varrentrappstraße 40-42
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany

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Total cost
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Participants (10)

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Last update: 20 July 1995

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/2076

European Union, 2024