Academic Text Service (ATS)

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Resource Requirements

In summation, then, here's a checklist of the resources that you'll need to get started on the road to creating and delivering e-texts over your network. While the list mayseem daunting at first, you'll probably find that you have most of these resources on campus somewhere already, and bringing them together in a coordinated fashion to be the greatest challange.

Remember what we said at the outset:

• Know your mission
• Raise policy questions explicitly and see that they are addressed at the right level
• Forge alliances/friendships everywhere

Software

• DBMS to manage e-text center
• Front-end software to access DBMS, probably multi-platform
• Front-end software to process the results of access, if not already contained in front-end software

Hardware

• Hardware to run DBMS software
• Sufficient storage to manage e-text databases (at least 10 GB to start with)
• Hardware to backup databases (tape drives, network back-up)

Technical/Developmental

• Unix (probably) System administration
• Unix/Perl programming expertise
• Database administration (SGML expertise/system analysis)
• Network expertise (TCP/IP)
• Expert document analysis
• Expert 'taggers'
• Conversion resources
• High-end 'user' view/understanding

Technical Processing

• Catalogers experienced with:
  • computer files
  • SGML
  • TEI Header

Public Service

• Integration/mainstreaming of access approaches
• Training
• Promotion of resources (if you build it, they may come...)
• Future Orientation ("Libraries deliver content, and this is what content delivery looks like today, and as for tomorrow, we'll do it when we get there...")

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