P. Vandrovec (vandrove@vc.cvut.cz)

CTU, Computing and Information Centre, Department of Libraries
Zikova 4, 166 35 Praha 6

The project aimed at creating a system of the Electronic Document Delivery Service (EDD) for CTU libraries users accessible a WWW application accessible via Internet.

CTU libraries work aims at increasing the accessibility of information sources independently on user's location. EDD can use the existing computer network infrastructure to provide for the faster and cheaper access to documents.

All CTU libraries participate in the Virtual Polytechnic Library (association of Czech technical libraries). This lead to incorporating the digitalizing application used by VPL into the system so that the scanning sites in CTU libraries can use the same software for both systems. The EDD request format was modified accordingly.

User WWW interface was created in PHP programming language with the interpreter running in Apache HTTP server on Linux server. Berkeley DB2 library was used for database support. Documents are internally stored in Portable Document Format (PDF) commonly used in the Internet. All the software components and data formats selected are license fee free, which limits the startup costs to the price of the server hardware.

The CTU libraries EDD provides information services for CTU libraries, employees and students according to following principles. Every user must be registered with the system to be allowed access. Users are identified by their email address.

Using the WWW interface users can enter his or her request for the document specifying the required quality of the copy and the desired term of delivery. On accepting the request the system sends an email notification to the scanning site.

Collected requests are handled by scanning sites at the libraries to produce the demanded copies. In case of the absence of the primary document the request is marked as unresolvable. After receiving the response from the scanning site the system notifies the user via email.

The created copy or the negative response is accessible to the user on the WWW interface. The user is allowed to print the copy on a previously registered network printer. The system is able to print on printers accessible via TCP/IP lpr protocol or via NCP.

In addition to printing the libraries (not end users) are allowed to download the copy directly in PDF format to be able to redistribute it to some cooperating EDD system.

The CTU Libraries EDD system was put into operation in the middle of 2000. The pilot project run at CTU Libraries and the Central library of Technical University of Ostrava proved the ability to successfully provide fast inter-library delivery of documents. At the beginning of 2001 the system became the part of standard library services.

The Electronic Document Delivery System is accessible at the WWW address: https://edd.cvut.cz/.