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Date:         Wed, 26 Aug 1992 14:34:26 CDT
From:         "Peter Graham, Rutgers U., (908) 932-2741" <GRAHAM@ZODIAC.BITNET>
Subject:      Bibliotheque de France reading station

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
From:  Peter Graham, Rutgers University
Subject:  PLAO (computer-assisted reading station) at the Bib. de France


InformationWeek (a computing industry publication) in its August 24, 1992
issue has a two page article on the Bibliotheque de France.  Entitled
"C'Est Magnifique--France's 'grand library' writes the book on data access"
(p. 36 & 38), the article notes in passing some of the controversies but
spends most of its space on the information technology issues (the 80 GB
catalog, transport systems, and digitized libraries of 300,000+ documents).
Unix and X-terminal technology will be the basis.

A separate sidebar, entitled "Bibliotheque Solitaire" (p. 40), I reproduce
below:

"One IT [Information Technology] highlight of the new Bibliotheque de France
will be the Poste de Lecture Assiste par Ordinateur (PLAO)--that's French for
'computer-assisted reading station'--which will turn a personal computer into
a personal library.

"Due to arrive at the library's 1995 opening with 1 Gbyte of storage, each
PLAO workstation will be able to store all documents and images needed by a
researcher, says Bruno Forni, one of the workstation's developers.

"The PLAO workstation represents one of the Bibliotheque's major innovations,
says Alain Gifard, chief of the project's IS and new technologies division.
'The work of the library normally ends when the researcher takes a book to
a desk,' he says.  'Then it becomes the private work of the researcher.
But the idea here is to create an organization more and more intensively
involved with the researcher's work.'

"Before coming to the library, a researcher would telephone a reservation for
the PLAO workstation.  At the library, the researcher would go to a catalog
access station and request to have his or her 'personal library' of documents
downloaded to a workstation, where the researcher could then get to work.

"The personal library would not necessarily be downloaded each time the
researcher uses it, says technical coordinator Colin Boettcher.  If, for
example, a researcher planned to use the PLAO workstation at the same time
for several consecutive days, Boettcher says, the customized, personal
library could remain on the system.

A PORTABLE RESOURCE

"Bibliotheque officials plan to allow users to take home part or all of the
personal library, either on a streaming tape or diskette, for use on home or
office computers.

"The PLAO will not be solely a reading terminal, either.  'The philosophy
for the PLAO is to create lots of generic tools that can be used by various
researchers, be they philosophers, literati, or sociologists,' says Forni.
These tools, he says, will allow users to 'destructure' original documents,
which has raised questions concerning researchers' right to copy and use
such information in any way they may see fit.

"But coordinator Boettcher says the library has already resolved a good
number of copyright questions and is working with publishers to resolve the
ones that remain. --M.W.J."

==========================Peter S. Graham / Computing Services   (908) 932-2741
Rutgers -- The State University of New Jersey.              Fax: (908) 932-5539
271 Hill Center / Piscataway, N. J. 08855 - 1179 ==============================
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU