by Carolyn Watters
page 1-16
The convergence of digital presentation technologies, Including video, audio, images, full colour, and animation, has given rise tot the development of multimedia and hypermedia presentation systems. Multimedia systems are based on the synchronization and co-ordination of data through media specific software and hardware so that data of a variety of media types enhance the overall impact of the presentation. Hypermedia applications include user-driven access mechanisms and links among such objects. New generations of hypermedia applications that exploit a larger range of multimedia types than are generally included in the multimedia class heirarchies are rapidly becoming available. In this paper we introduce two additional multimedia types, computational and directive, that depend on direct interaction with the user and increase the use of computing facilities within hypermedia presentations. The recognition of interactive media types provides fertile ground for new classes of hypermedia link types. Examples from prototype hypermedia systems for math education and electronic news delivery are used throughout the paper to illustrate the application of these additional media types.
by Peter J Thomas,John F Meech and Jane Williams
page 17-23
It is clear that the role of information resource is changing. Major publishers have been slow to adapt to the emergence of a global digital medium, but there are new signs that a great deal of information will be delivered on-line, (although at present only about 25 databases account for 80% of the usage in UK and optical publishing is still in its early stages). However, digital publishing on the Internet -with services for libraries such as just-in-time publishing and delivery, for example - will be the driving force in creating the 'global digital medium'. One issue that will become increasingly relevant is how the individual researcher accesses rich multimedia data in the most appropriate way. The 'digital university campus' and the 'digital library' are coming to be important concepts, with the aim that users of information services will receive information on-line supported by a 'ubiquistructure' of information technology. For the 'digital campus' this means that not only scholarly but also teaching activities are based on interactive access to information, and where not only the digital library but also the digital bookshop and the digital classroom are becoming possible with the development of 140Mb/s SuperJANET links. However, it is recognised that libraries will not be truly digital for the foreseeable future, and that libraries will maintain traditional and digital media side by side. In this paper, reporting on work at the University of Bristol's Educational Technology Service multimedia resources unit MRU, and the University of the West on England's Centre for Personal Information Management (in collaboration with Hewlett-Packard Research Laboratories and the University of Bristol's Centre for Communications Research), we look at the 'digital library' and ;digital campus' from the perspective of the individual user and her information needs. We are particularly interested in the use of small, mobile computers as access points to the global digital medium. We suggest that, in any environment of change - where the traditional campus and the traditional library exist alongside the digital campus and digital library - the most appropriate form of access technology is based on 'personal technology' which allows a linking between digital information and traditional paper-based information.
by Alejandra Garrido and Gustavo Rossi
garrido@info.unlp.edu.ar, grossi@info.unlp.edu.ar
page 25-41
A core set of navigational aspects may be found by extracting the key features of hypermedia applications. Incorporated to an information system (IS), they may increase its utility and usability. This type of extension of an IS is called 'The Hypertext Functionality Approach', and it may be done in different ways. In this paper we present a novel approach to add navigational features into object-oriented (OO) applications: by using the application model as a basis for the hypermedia model and placing the navigational features in a different layer, allowing to augment the application functionality without polluting the base model. The navigational features were included as components of an OO framework, and were defined by abstracting the major concepts of current hypermedia design models. The major goal of this approach is the seamless integration of the application's behaviour with main characteristics of hypermedia. This results in a hybrid application that may be considered either as an OO application or enhanced with hypermedia functionality (HF) or, conversely, as a hypermedia application defined with the semantics of an OO model and enhanced with other than navigational computations.
by John D Gilleard and Y C Lee
page 43-57
Building Services Engineering (bse) is an applied discipline within the construction industry. It is concerned with the design, installation, operation and maintenance of all mechanical and electrical systems in buildings. Design software developed for the bse industry is typically structured on sets of well established rules and building codes. Anecdotal evidence indicates that junior designers, who may lack experience and confidence, frequently adopt a 'black box' approach when applying design software. This may be contrasted with the more experienced designer who typically questions the assumptions and algorithms adapted before applying the programs. However, this is not always possible even for the experienced designer, particularly where 'conventional' computer languages have been used to develop the software. It is therefore argued within the paper that for some applications design software based on hypermedia may be more appropriate. This is demonstrated throughout the development of a prototype 'fire sprinkler layout design' model using HyperCard. This paper also indicates that by constructing strategic relations between objects the effectiveness of the design model can be enhanced. In this way the designer is better able to control the process of navigation within the model.
by Bridget Winstanley
page 55-67
The ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex has provided access to social science research for the academic community since the late 1960s. Since the mid-1980s bibliographic descriptions of all the Archive's 5000 plus databases have been available to users of the JANET and the Internet via the Archive's BIRON (Bibliographic Information Retrieval Online) System. Data are provided on a variety of electronic media and by networked transfer, according to the wishes and resources of the end user. Documentation, that is, the full texts of questions asked, the contextual background to the studies and the technical details needed to read the electronic data, have normally been supplied on paper and by post. The Archive is now seeking to extend the bibliographic information on BIRON to full texts of the documentation held. This will provide a new research tool for survey methodoligists, will greatly assist identification of suitable datasets for data analysts, will assist the Archive's document storage and delivery problems and allow direct access to the main findings of these surveys to people who do not have analysis skills and software. Because all datasets are indexed with BIRON (using a thesaurus to control the indexing vocabulary) the addition of full texts to the database will provide an interesting experiment in the combination of controlled vocabulary and free-text retrieval methods. The paper will touch on the nature of social science research and documentation, digitisation of existing paper documents, development of information retrieval tools and access to the resulting databases both by CD-ROM and via the Internet.
by Mike Bearn, Sara Jones, Jill Hewitt, John Sapsford-Francis
comrmb@herts.ac.uk, comrsj@herts.ac.uk, comajah@herts.ac.uk, comajs@herts.ac.uk
page 69-87
Advice systems are defined information systems which present users with both information and more subjective expert advice about complex and weakly structured domains. This paper presents a Generic Advice System Architecture (GASA) to assist in developing such systems. It describes how the architecture was used in developing the SPIRE system, whose aim is to provide advice and information which will assist the integration of students with disabilities into higher education. This paper discusses the way in which the GASA addresses key issues in the development of hypermedia advice systems including the need to make such systems available to users with little training and limited knowledge of the domain; the requirement to support diverse information exploration strategies; the provision of purely 'point and select' access; and the minimisation of user disorientation and cognitive overhead.
by Anita Sundaram
asc@uiuc.edu
page 89-105
The h-journal is both a networked information tool and a new, evolving genre of electronic documents that aim to support the information work of practitioners. This paper discusses the features and applications of the h-journal that were found to be needed for information work in the domain of health sciences reference librarianship.
by Pauline Brown, Rob Hiddderley, Hugh Griffin and Sarah Rollason
Pauline.Brown@uce.ac.uk, roghid@uce.cityscape.co.uk
page 107-120
by Linda Creamor, Helen Durndell and Carol Primrose
page 120-148
When the Glasgow University Teaching with Independent Learning Technologies (TILT) project began in January 1993, its main aim was to demonstrate how IT could be successfully incorporated into university teaching within a single institution. Now almost four years on, TILT has demonstrated its value in many areas and one topic which has shown itself to have wider implications is that of library and study skills. More than 130 institutions both in the UK and overseas are now using the 5 hypertext information skill modules as a resource in their undergraduate teaching, and detailed evaluations of their effectiveness have been carried out. This paper reflects on the development and evaluation of the courseware and details its transformation from Guide through Toolbook to World Wide Web.
by Herman Kaindal
kaih@siemens.co.at
page 149-173
Requirements engineering is insufficiently supported in practice, especially the issue of appropriate formality of the requirements' representation during their definition is yet unresolved. Since informal natural language has its disadvantages and immediate formal representation is very difficult, a mediating representation is needed. Therefore we developed a novel approach to requirements engineering - with tool support - that is based on hypertext. We utilise hypertext primarily for semiformal representation, that can help to bridge the informality/formality gap between human and computer. We have applied our approach in real world projects, and our experience suggests its usefulness. As a consequence, we recommend the use of hypertext for the specification of requirements in practice.
by P Carrara, A Della Ventura and I Gagliardi
paolo@itim.mi.cnr.it, adv@itim.mi.cnr.it, isabella@itim.mi.cnr.it
page 175-195
Multimedia art catalogues present a number of recurring characteristics in both the type of data and the users involved, and in the type of operations required. Typical data include textual catalogue cards, manageable through and information retrieval system (IS), as well as textual captions, images, video, and speech, organizable as a hypermedia network. In this paper we propose a model for the design of these applications, and discuss its effectiveness in improving the quality of the application. The model exploits a multi-level approach to organise data and access structures of the IRS, while the Entity-Relationship (E-R) approach, tailored to model hypermedia applications, is adopted to describe the structure of the documents and their links.
Transcribed by Angus Nicolson
10 March 1997