Selection criteria for a document image processing system for the ELINOR Electronic Library project

Abstract

The Information Centre at De Montfort University Milton Keynes is carrying out a three year research project known as the ELINOR Electronic Library project, which will work towards the creation of a large, indexed collection of electronic texts and images accessible to the students and staff via desktop workstations. The pilot phase will build on the existing information network and use the latest document image processing (DIP) and text retrieval technologies to set up a central and secure location for the data. At this stage of the project, the recommended course texts are not available in electronic formats, so the priority was to assess the suitability of a DIP system for converting printed works into machine‐readable text and image files. Each electronic document will contain a searchable table of contents, abstract, back‐of‐the‐book index data, and, appended to this information will be a folder of image pages. This paper outlines the investigative stages in evaluating and selecting a DIP system, and finally, covers the shortcomings of using a commercial DIP system for electronic libraries.