An open digital library ordering system

Abstract

In this paper we briefly describe an open ordering manipulation system with a WWW interface. The orders concern articles of scientific journals. Customer users can search in data sources from a variety of suppliers for articles of journals and order specific pages of the articles. Their search can also include electronic journals in which case their orders can be fulfilled, charged and delivered electronically as an e-mail attachment without needing an operator. The various suppliers can view orders made to them and service them. A customer can direct his order to several suppliers declaring an order of preference. We also introduce the issues involved and present our open system solution that separates the search from the order procedures. Searching can use any external interface provided by the various data sources and intercepts queries and their answers to search requests.