QUARTET: A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT IN DIGITAL INFORMATION INTERCHANGE
| Pages | 36-37 |
| Published date | 01 February 1986 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040354 |
| Date | 01 February 1986 |
| Author | Bill Tuck |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
36
QUARTET:
A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT IN DIGITAL
INFORMATION
INTERCHANGE, by Bill Tuck*
[The British Library Research and Development Department recently
awarded its largest grant - £794,000 over 3 years - for a
quadrapartite project to investigate a wide range of factors affecting
the creation and exchange of electronic information. Technical, human
and organisational aspects will all be considered. The following
pages set out the background to the project and describe the main
areas for research. Though it is not directly relevant to library
housekeeping, the project will look at many of the issues which are
beginning to interest librarians, particularly as they move towards
greater networking of library services and information. Ed]
Background to the collaborative project
QUARTET is a collaborative research project between four UK academic
institutions (University College London, Birmingham and Loughborough
Universities, and Hatfield
Polytechnic).
All have been involved in
British Library sponsored research into Information Technology for a
number of years. The intention of the collaboration is to bring this
research together under one coordinated programme.
The project was set up by the British Library Research and Development
Department, which has as one of its objectives the promotion of
research into the provision of information services to the academic
research community. It is funded for three years, commencing in
January 1986, and each of the four institutions is expected to have at
least two full-time equivalent researchers working on the project
throughout this period.
The functional components of the project
The main functional components of the project are:
(i) electronic messaging
(ii) computer-based conferencing
(iii) database access and document delivery
Electronic mail has been available in various forms for some time now
and is currently supported by a number of sites on the JANET network,
including all those involved in the present project. This provides a
basic store-and-forward facility for the transfer of simple text
messages between users. Computer conferencing, unlike electronic
mail,
is usually based on a central host computer to which users have
* Bill Tuck is Programme Coordinator for Project Quartet.
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