Xref: utzoo bionet.general:595 bionet.molbio.genbank:91 news.software.b:3849 sci.bio:2589 sci.chem:768 sci.physics:10773 Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!haven!umbc3!mbph!hybl From: hybl@mbph.UUCP (Albert Hybl Dept of Biophysics SM) Newsgroups: bionet.general,bionet.molbio.genbank,news.software.b,sci.bio,sci.chem,sci.physics Subject: Creating Electronic Research Libraries Keywords: Usenet M_Lesk Refer Software Terabyte_Optical_Disk_Devices Message-ID: <617@mbph.UUCP> Date: 19 Dec 89 15:36:37 GMT Organization: University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201 Lines: 83 Dear Santa, The Internet has been providing useful services to the academic community. It provides a vehicle for exchange of electronic mail; the usenet is an international bulletin board for communication with a wide audience; it disseminates and archives public domain software; bionet.journal.contents is the fledgling equivalent of an electronic current contents; the bionet.sci-resources announces funding opportunities and changes in NIH regulations. Contributors to the bionet.molbio.genbank news group are advocating that the Internet be used for the electronic transfer of current and archived gene sequences. I agree! However, the Internet could also be used for the dissemination of protein sequences, crystallographic data from small molecules and macromolecules, bibliographic abstracts such as Med-Line or Chem Abstracts and a host of other information resources. There appears to be a need to establish electronic research libraries. Slip into any bricked academic library and you can find shelf after shelf devoted to various publications such as Chem Abstracts and Index Medicus, a few terminals used for accessing Med-Line, and several PCs each dedicated to a single minded task. Faculty and students use these facilities to keep current on certain subjects or to locate reference to information for a research project. Surely it would be much more efficient to receive electronic mail or to login and read from the current postings to info.groups based the user's interest profile. The electronic research libraries could use the gigabyte or multiple terabyte optical storage devices; these devices are considerably less expensive than building more brick libraries. What are the advantages? o Rapid posting of new entries The public domain software already developed for the usenet can be used to transfer compressed batches of information between the libraries. The generators of the information can post directly to the network eliminating publication delays or tape/disk production and distribution problems. o User profile subject selection (.medrc or .chemrc) The National Library of Medicine publishes a tree structure for its Medical Subject Headings; hence, just as a user defines the news group he wishes to read in a .newsrc file, he could define his interest profile in a .medrc or .chemrc file. Again the public domain software of the usenet could be used. o Archiving the entries Archiving is essential. Once it becomes obvious that the PCs located in brick libraries can not provide the breath of service that is technically possible, then perhaps enlightened administrators will begin to equip and staff the facilities needed to accomplish the job. Software like the M. Lesk Refer programs can be used to maintain links to the archived information. o User retrieval of archived entries An UNIX shell program like lookbib or seekbib can be used to extract relevant reference from an M. Lesk archive. Because it is unlikely that all users will be able to ftp directly to the computer system that contains the archive, they should be able to issue a control command that would cause the remote execution of a seekbib shell with the results of the search returned via e-mail. Although there is plenty of room for improvements, software for all the proposed services exist. Technically both hardware and software exists to create electronic research libraries. So, Santa, please give our administrators the wisdom to speedily provide the services. Thank you, ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Albert Hybl, PhD. UUCP Office: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl Department of Biophysics Home: uunet!mimsy!mbph!hybl!ah University of Maryland Bitnet: hybl@umbc1 CoSy: ahybl School of Medicine Phone Office: (301) 328-7940 Baltimore, MD 21201 Home: (301) 243-1710 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Responders--DO NOT USE: hybl@cs.umd.edu or ah@cs.umd.edu