Providing Access To Locally Generated Databases Over The Web

Abstract

The Grainger Engineering Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has implemented Web-based access to locally developed information resources using the Microsoft (MS) Active Server Pages (ASP) technologies. These local databases, in both MS Access and MS Structured Query Language (SQL) Server format, complement traditional engineering information resources. The databases provide enhanced access to difficult to locate materials and resources that are outside the scope of an online catalog and article databases. The local databases are accessible for any Web user from the top-level menu at Grainger public terminals, from a custom reference desk menu, and from the Grainger Home Page (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/grainger/). These databases have greatly improved the training of reference staff, particularly new graduate assistants, librarians and paraprofessionals. From December 1997 through February 1, 2000, the Grainger local databases have been selected 26,067 times, which makes up approximately 24% of the over 107,000 selections from public terminal main menus. This paper describes how these resources are developed and the improvements that Web technologies have offered.

I. Introduction

The World Wide Web has become the vehicle of choice for online databases and other collect- ions of online information.1 Web-based resources offer several advantages over telnet, CD- ROM, and locally programmed resource access. The Web offers a consistent search, retrieval, and display mechanism independent of the hardware or operating system being used.2 There is evidence that web-based interfaces are used more effectively than telnet-based interfaces by end- user searchers.3

Libraries have begun to offer or are experimenting with Web-based access to locally produced information resources formerly available in vertical files, word processing documents, or within