Block 3 Sessions, 1:00-1:45 p.m.
Program M
Transforming the Web into a Forum for Academic
Research: The USC Doheny Electronic Resources Center Model
Judith A.
Truelson
Director, Doheny Electronic Resources Center
University of Southern California
Evidence suggests that use of multimedia or new media can enhance selected
areas of the curriculum. Library planners at USC believe that use of
multimedia to transform the WEB into a research forum for scholars in the
humanities facilitates and even ensures the eventual use of this material
in the curriculum. This use also affords researchers a more flexible and
accessible research forum, albeit a forum that may present some
intellectual property challenges. The USC Doheny Electronic Resources
Center was established in September of 1996 to foster a collaborative
environment between researchers and librarians in creating and
disseminating electronically based multimedia research resources. The
purpose of this paper is to describe the centerwith librarians and
humanities faculty, and its first five projects -- including a SGML
Project to develop expertise among library faculty and humanities faculty
in use of SGML Author for Windows 95 which is the standard format
prescribed by the Text Encoding Initiative; and, a Dead Sea
Scrolls Project which will provide WEB access to the largest known catalog
of archaeological images for scholars and students of ancient Near Eastern
and biblical texts with the ability to order high resolution copies of these
images off the WEB. In the course of the discussion both successes and
challenges (particularly ways in which obstacles have been circumvented)
will be emphasized, as well as a forecast of future developments.
