Cornell University Library, Cornell Information Technologies, and Xerox
Corporation, with the support of the Commission on Preservation and
Access, and Sun Microsystems, Inc., have been collaborating in a project
to test a prototype system for recording brittle books as digital images
and producing, on demand, high-quality archival paper replacements. The
project goes beyond that, however, to investigate some of the issues
surrounding scanning, storing, retrieving, and providing access to
digital images in a network environment.
The Joint Study in Digital Preservation began in January 1990. Xerox
provided the College Library Access and Storage System (CLASS) software,
a prototype 600-dots-per-inch (dpi) scanner, and the hardware necessary
to support network printing on the DocuTech printer housed in Cornell's
Computing and Communications Center (CCC).
The Cornell staff using the hardware and software became an integral part
of the development and testing process for enhancements to the CLASS
software system. The collaborative nature of this relationship is
resulting in a system that is specifically tailored to the preservation
application.
A digital library of 1,000 volumes (or approximately 300,000 images) has
been created and is stored on an optical jukebox that resides in CCC.
The library includes a collection of select mathematics monographs that
provides mathematics faculty with an opportunity to use the electronic
library. The remaining volumes were chosen for the library to test the
various capabilities of the scanning system.
One project objective is to provide users of the Cornell library and the
library staff with the ability to request facsimiles of digitized images
or to retrieve the actual electronic image for browsing. A prototype
viewing workstation has been created by Xerox, with input into the design
by a committee of Cornell librarians and computer professionals. This
will allow us to experiment with patron access to the images that make up
the digital library. The viewing station provides search, retrieval, and
(ultimately) printing functions with enhancements to facilitate
navigation through multiple documents.
Cornell currently is working to extend access to the digital library to
readers using workstations from their offices. This year is devoted to
the development of a network resident image conversion and delivery
server, and client software that will support readers who use Apple
Macintosh computers, IBM windows platforms, and Sun workstations.
Equipment for this development was provided by Sun Microsystems with
support from the Commission on Preservation and Access.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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