For many years Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology (NPLS&T) has played a leadership role in the field of library automation as well as in the field of online access to library information resources. NPLS&T has always treated the tasks of automation and remote access as a single integral problem. The problems of telecommunication access to our resources have always been solved together with the automation problems.

2. TELE-SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1986

In 1986 the first system of remote user service was introduced in NPLS&T. At that time it was the only real system of access to bibliographic information arrays. Certainly here should be mentioned the systems of major information centers of the USSR, primarily All-Union Institute for Sci-Tech Information (VINITI), Institute for Social Sciences Information (INION), Scientific Production Amalgamation "Poisk", All-Union Sci-Tech Information Centre (VNTITs) and other leading organizations which supplied information to users but which were not the library bodies.

The above system was based on application of domestic computers and telecommunication facilities of EC-type which were very close to IBM/360/370 systems. Users of this system were provided with access via switched channels and the channels of VNIIPAS network using X.25 protocol - the only telecommunication network in the USSR which was accessible to organizations engaged in activities in the field of sci-tech information.

Other significant steps were made by NPLS&T in 1992 when STD-2 teleaccess system was installed. It provided access to the NPLS&T databases via the switched channels, the channels of X.25 network, noise-immunity channels of a specialized network ISKRA-2. The above system was based on Novell hard- and software as it was the time when Russia initiated the transfer to much cheaper and simple-to-use LAN-based systems. Remote-user access was provided in the terminal mode.

The work of users with telecommunication networks (using X.25 protocol as there were no TCP/IP networks in Russia at that time) was hindered and for many users practically impossible due to many engineering and organizational problems. Therefore the majority of users worked through the switched channels.

It goes without saying that the transfer rate of the switched channels was low. Nevertheless that period still may be considered as first significant steps on the way to "large-scale online" because the achieved results were satisfactory and remote users could access to more than 40 databases maintained by the NPLS&T.

In October 1995 NPLS&T had its Internet IP-address which allowed NPLS&T not only access to the Internet but also be its full member. From the engineering point of view access to the Internet was provided via switched noise-immunity channels of ISKRA-2 network and later via leased two-wire channels. ZyXEL U-1496E modem was used for communication. The maximum transfer rate was 16,800 bps.

During the first month of operation, the NPLS&T specialists also accessed the Internet using MS Windows and accessed the World Wide Web (WWW) using Netscape software. Still our Library must solve the problem of providing remote access to its resources. In order to accomplish this, the Library specialists started to develop a WWW-server.

3. THE WWW SERVER & DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS

The WWW server is to provide two important services:

• Access to the NPLS&T information resources for remote users, and
• Access to the information resources of NPLS&T and other information centers for in house library users..

Now we would like to speak in detail about the activities carried out by the Library and the results of these activities. The NPLS&T specialists have accumulated rich experience in development of the software to support the Internet hosts which can be regarded as typical for many libraries of Russia and other countries of the former socialist camp.

It should be mentioned that at all the stages of automated and telecommunication systems development in the Library, despite the drastic changes that took place in the field of the hardware, system software and telecommunication infrastructure, the basic element of the automated library system has remained invariable. It is CDS/ISIS software package. This software is developed and distributed free of charge by UNESCO as a specialized library-oriented package which is now wide spread in the countries of the FSU, Western Europe, Italy, Spain, Latin America and others.

The first problem which we faced was to choose software and hardware. Our capabilities were restricted due to a number of reasons:

• Underfunding
• Existing successful operating library system IRBIS (developed by the NPLS&T specialists on the basis of the CDS/ISIS/M software package).
• The accumulated data arrays in the CDS/ISIS/M format.

Thus the fulfillment of this task had to ensure the compatibility of the operating system and the system under development at the level of data arrays since the transfer to a new format, platform and the change of the system in general would require much financial resources and time. NPLS&T as the official CDS/ISIS distributor in the CIS countries had at its disposal a copy of CDS/ISIS/UNIX software package provided by the package developers. Therefore we had to choose only those UNIX versions which could support CDS/ISIS/UNIX. Besides the above problems, there was another one. The accumulated data arrays were placed on the file servers run under Novell 3.12 operating system. It would be very expensive to store 2 copies of large arrays and it was desirable to use data arrays stored on Novel file servers. We found two ways to fulfill this task:

• NFS installment on Novell file servers

• Including support of IPX protocol in UNIX operating system. Since NFS has low transfer rate, it is preferable to use the IPX protocol support in UNIX OS.

3.1. The Selection of LINUX Operating System

Taking into account all the above NPLS&T specialists have chosen LINUX operating system. To some, this might be a strange decision since LINUX is a public domain system. Nevertheless, we chose that for a number of reasons:

The transfer from the already existing switched channel to a leased one was the next step. In March 1996 the server was replaced, and now the server of Compaq Proliant 1500 is used. Since April, NPLS&T has been using the radiochannel to use the radiomodem at 2.42 Hhz. The NPLS&T WWW-server IP address is as follows: gpntb.ippi.ras.ru (194.88.3.39). Today the laying of fiber-optical channel with the capacity of 256Kb/sec. is in progress. Such a channel will enable NPLS&T to obtain a network of C class (256 IP addresses) and to organize a more flexible system of telecommunication access to domestic and international information resources. Undoubtedly it will cause changes in the IP addresses of which the users will be informed.

3.2. The Changes Made in Software

Unfortunately there is no single coding for information in Russian. Today at least 4 different options are used - MS-DOS, MS Windows, UNIX and ISO codings. Existence and use of these different coding systems present problems for Russian-language information storage and supply. The major storage problem is the existence of three copies of a document. Delivery problem is the need for user to choose one of the 3 coding variants.

NPLS&T specialists have successfully solved the above problem. We made alterations in the initial WWW-server texts so to define a browser type and OS as certain coding is used for a specific OS type -- such as MS Windows, OS/2 and MS-DOS, and as an alternative, UNIX - KOI-8-p.

3.3. Features of the WWW Server

4. CONTENTS OF INFORMATION RESOURCES

Besides the technological aspect of providing remote users with access to the available information resources, there is a problem of contents of these resources. There is no secret that users are every interested in full-text data arrays. NPLS&T does its utmost to satisfy these demands. However filling the systems with full texts is hampered not only by technological but also legislative problems. NPLS&T publishes in electronic form only those documents it has the right to publish. At present Sci-Tech Libraries journal, OCLC NewsLetters digest in Russian, translated and published by NPLS&T, Proceedings of the International Conferences - "Crimea 94", "Crimea 95" and "Crimea 96" are available in the electronic form. Figure 1 shows the Home page of our web site. Besides, NPLS&T strives to produce information on Russia and Moscow oriented for general foreign users. These data are delivered to users free of charge.

5. BIBLIOGRAPHIC TOOLS ACCESSIBLE VIA THE INTERNET

Finally, it is worthy mentioning our bibliographic tools accessible via the Internet. A few major ones are:

With the success of our WWW-server, at the present, NPLS&T specialists are embarking on activities to expand our access to additional information resources. These include other NPLS&T information resources not available on the system at this time, to develop advance query system, the technology of query, and document delivery via ILL and the Internet channels.