From a message to CAUL, 9 June 1995:
The trial is to run from July 1st, for six months. The first two months are provided gratis as a lead-in period to the actual trial. IAC's Expanded Academic Index plus ASAP (index plus ascii full-text component) will be available.
Access will be via telnet from all CAUL institutions to a regional server, which will provide client access to the data on IAC's server in the U.S. There will be unlimited simultaneous usage at each institution. Printing can be via any local printer, but if non-text material is required to be printed, then there is an option to purchase a printer at approx. $4,000.
I am seeking expressions of interest from university libraries willing to be a host site for the forthcoming IAC trial. We would like to have 10 sites Australia-wide, with possibly two in each of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and one in Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Canberra. Please notify me as soon as possible if you are considering volunteering to be a host site.
The IAC client software would be loaded on a unix machine at these sites, and other institutions in that region would telnet to the site, and use the client software to connect to the database server in the U.S. There are already a number of universities trialling the databases, with the client software installed locally. Some of these are prepared to be one of the 10 regional sites. Others have to renegotiate with their computing people, because access to their server by outside users is not currently allowed. One site is unable to participate because of problems with the local (institution) network.
"Client software can be installed over the Internet via FTP, if this is agreeable to local site. The Client uses approximately 500k per simultaneous user, and approximately 8mb of disk space. The client machine must be able to establish a TCP connection to a high-numbered TCP port on the Internet. Domain Name Service must be available.
"Local Pcs and terminals must be able to "Telnet of Rlogin" (sic) to the client host to run the client software.
"Platform options
"Token Ring Y/N? Source routing? Y/N?
"Wide Area Network (main and branches) Y/N?
"Multiplexors Y/N?
"Bridges? Y/N?
"Routers? Y/N?
"IP Config Information
The following information was provided in response to a request for details about the management of the current IAC trials. It may help you to determine your level of participation in the forthcoming trial.
Diane Costello Executive Officer CAUL
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Date: Wed, 24 May 1995 11:49:54 +1000 (EST)
From: "Diane Costello (CAUL)" <costello@info>
The proposed CAUL IAC trial intends to set up client software at 10 sites around Australia, through which all CAUL members will be able to access IAC. In order to select those that are best able, and willing, to mount the software, it would be helpful to have some feedback about the current trial.
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 1995 11:59:36 GMT-1000
From: Damian Kelly <DAMIANK@library.lib.rmit.edu.au>
Re: IAC trial at RMIT
We have the following databases:
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Date: Fri, 26 May 95 15:16:00 PDT
From: "Todd, Lian" <todlc@stamail1.vut.edu.au>
I am involved in setting up the current IAC trials and am currently overseeing it.
* Generally, we had no problems with accessing the IAC databases over the Internet. It might be a bit slow during the peak periods when the traffic is heavy anyway. Other than that, we could print off ascii text articles with no problems.
* We do however, have some problems printing from the laser print workstation because of our narrow bandwith. We were losing nearly 50% of the packages. This problem will be alieviated when the university upgrades to a 32Mb link later in the year. Presently, we are only running on a 128k link!!
* The IAC software is presently loaded onto our UNIX host, Cougar. It is a multiple-use machine that is used for teaching and administration. Amongst other things, it has compilers for Cobal,C and other languages, carries software for administrative functions, has news and web servers and other internet protocols, IP included.
* Administration of the trial:
After the initial setting up, we publicise the databases to our university community via email, letter drops, announcements at department meetings, displays in the library, word of mouth, etc. We train our librarians so that they can provide support at the Information Desk. We will offer information/training sessions to our academic staff and students which covers basics like how to logon to the databases through tohow advanced searching techniques. We also prepared "how-to" sheets which we hand out freely. The idea is to get as many people using it as possible. Apart from these, it is basically maintaining the system and keeping things running smoothly.
* Evaluation of the trial
At this point, we have no formal evaluation programme. I will be get some statistics from the UNIX machine on the pattern of access. I am considering quick email surveys to target users, eg. Faculty of Business for feedback on their response to the databases, usage patterns, timeliness, etc.
* Access site
Our access the IAC databases is presently open only to the VUT community. At this point, I don't believe we have the capacity to support CAUL access. However, the situation may change when we upgrade to 132MB. We will have to consult the relevant people at our ITS.
* Comments
Obviously, sites with sizable bandwidth are preferable.
Firewalls around hosts might affect access.
Co-operation and support from IT is vital for the trial to run smoothly.
Within the evaluation of these trials, I would like to see how these databases compare to others likeUMI's Powerpages in terms of costs, timeliness, ease of access, ease of usage, coverage of the databases and relevance to the undergraduate, postgraduate and research community. In the last month, and without publicising it widely, we already have 700 logins to the IAC databases.
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Lian Todd Ph: 03 - 365-2109 Business Liaison Librarian Victoria University of Technology Fax: 03 - 365-2361 St. Albans Campus P.O. Box 14428 MMC Melbourne, Vic. 3001 email: todlc@stamail1.vut.edu.au
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Date: Tue, 30 May 95 11:18:15 EST
From: "Neil A. Radford" <neilr@library.usyd.edu.au>
To: costello@info.anu.edu.au
Response from the University of Sydney about IAC, prepared by John Rodwell, Information Services Librarian.
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Date: Tue, 6 Jun 1995 15:05:16 -0800
Subject: IAC trial in progress
The comments below have been made by Malcolm Campbell, Collection Management Co-ordinator at Griffith, in response to your request of the 26th May.
Janice Rickards
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