ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT DELIVERY USING THE INTERNET

The Health Sciences Libraries Consortium (HSLC) was established in 198 5 by thirteen founding member institutions in Pennsylvania and Delawar e. In 1989, the Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, and Union List T ask Force, appointed by the HSLC Board of Directors, successfully demo nstrated the feasibility of supplying 94% of all interlibrary loan (IL L) photocopy requests in forty-eight hours or less by a network applic ation of group 3-level memory telefacsimiles. However, the expenses as sociated with the telefacsimile operation and the limitations associat ed with network polling protocols challenged participants to seek new alternatives for ILL. In 1990, the HSLC introduced HSLC HealthNET(TM), an online wide-area network linking eleven of the thirteen institutio ns and their resources while providing access to the Internet. The HSL C HealthNET additionally supports a centralized shared library system, several locally mounted databases, and consortiumwide electronic mail . In 1991, a project was initiated to evaluate Ariel(TM) software, pio neered by the Research Libraries Group (RLG), compared to the existing network application of group 3-level telefacsimiles. Factors identifi ed as critical to Ariel's potential to replace the telefacsimile netwo rk were the proprietary software specifications for Internet access, t he use of HSLC's existing wide-area network (WAN), and a hardware plat form that was optimal for an ILL environment. This article describes t he Ariel project history, the transition to Ariel from the telefacsimi le network, evaluation of equipment features for processing efficiency , and operational issues affecting ILL policy.