We first present an overview of our approach, highlighting some of the central decisions that we have made in approaching the design and development of a digital library system. We also indicate some of the particular issues that arise in relation to a digital library that involves support for spatially-indexed information. We then discuss the critical issue of the nature and determination of user requirements, and present some scenarios involving interactions between various classes of users and the system. This discussion is followed by an indication of the minimum set of collection of library items that will be made available to users in our initial testbed system.
In the following nine subsections of the Project Description, we characterize in some detail the nature of the system that we are proposing to design, develop and evaluate. Each subsection begins with a short discussion of the main issues and, following a detailed discussion of these isses, ends with an itemized list of the main research and development issues that we plan to address. The Project Description ends with a discussion of the results of prior NSF support.
Following the Bibliography, we provide a discussion of the roles of the various organizations involved in the Alexandria Project, and then present a detailed management plan. This is followed by a detailed plan and schedule of our proposed research. We end with a presentation of the budget, cost-sharing arrangements, supporting facilities, and current and pending support.