When an institutional program review determined the Hillsborough Community College Libraries Web site was out-of-date, lacked resources, and was in desperate need of a makeover, the authors embarked upon a redesign project. The article describes the challenges and considerations that contributed to the authors' decision-making and design…

Living inside built environments--infrastructure--it is easy to take for granted the things that we do not need to engage, but are at work behind the scenes nonetheless. Well-designed systems become invisible, but to engage them, how do we know which perspectives, objects, and relationships are useful? I examine the University of Michigan Digital…

The convergence of web-enabled smartphones, the applications designed for smartphone interfaces, and cloud computing is rapidly changing how people interact with each other and with their environments. The commercial sector has taken the lead in creating mobile websites that leverage the capacities of smartphones, and the academic community has…

Lakeland College, a small rural institution on the Canadian prairies, used to face the dilemma of needing a Web presence without having the funds, staff, and technology infrastructure to support it. This article relates how Lakeland's librarian hired ShirWin Knowledge & Learning Systems, Inc., a small software company based in Edmonton,…

Gives practical tips on how to retrieve and view images from Internet databases, with a description of image file formats and the requirements for viewing and decompression software. A list of nine image databases and a brief description of the University of Arizona library's digital image project are provided. (Contains four references.) (KRN)

A microcomputer-based user interface was developed and programmed for the library computer systems at the University of Illinois. Designed to provide user-friendly access to the two components of the online catalog on the library's IBM 3081 mainframe computer, the interface program resides on the IBM PC and queries the user in natural written…

Discusses the history and structure of the online database of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the software tools developed at the University of Waterloo to manipulate the unusually complex database. Four sample searches that indicate some types of problems that might be encountered are appended. (DB)

Describes the development and installation of a hypermedia system for student use at the University of Texas Pan-American library that provides information about the library's resources as an alternative to existing printed materials. Highlights include selecting an authoring tool and computer hardware and the development of an icon-based system.…

Proposes an infrastructure to provide organizationwide access in a large university to government statistical databases issued on CD-ROM. Topics addressed include characteristics of government numeric data on CD-ROM, networked options, desired characteristics of networked CD-ROM access, hardware and network configurations, a prototype system, and…

Describes a study that electronically monitored 11 public access terminals at the University of Colorado libraries to produce transaction logs that were used to gather statistics and analyze users' behavior when searching online catalogs. Implications for search instruction and systems design are suggested. (Contains 13 references.) (LRW)

Describes a project designed to provide bibliographic control and access through use of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Header and MARC record to electronic texts coded with Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Steps in the cataloging process, efforts to refine the process, and the issues the process raises are discussed. (16…

Describes the design and implementation of the Reference Expert, a database based on INMAGIC software which contains problem reference questions and answers for use by library reference desk staff. Topics discussed include staff response to the database and problems encountered in its development. A sidebar describes the use of WORM…

This paper describes the techniques for implementing a full-screen, custom SPIRES interface for a public-use library database. The database-independent protocol that controls the system is described in detail. Source code for an entire working application using this interface is included. The protocol, with less than 170 lines of procedural code,…

Describes a successful experiment at Oregon State University in which user access to an extensive CD-ROM library was improved through the development of a networked environment. Discussed are dial-in and Telnet access for users both on and off campus, future possibilities, and subscription and licensing fees. (three references) (EA)

Describes research and development of the Mercury Electronic Library Project, which was developed at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries to design an advanced retrieval system. Topics discussed include system architecture; security; performance, including automated and manual assessments; enhanced retrieval, including available databases;…