byte-serving

[Greg MacGowan]

[This message is being sent to multiple lists. Please excuse any duplication.]

Like many other libraries, we are delivering e-reserves in pdf format
(using Docutek's ERes software). Because OCR is too time- and
labor-intensive, we have been serving them as page images. This means that
the filesizes are large, and students complain about the long download times.

Someone suggested that byte-serving may speed downloading, as students
could download a page at a time, rather than the entire file. However, not
all browsers support byte-serving. Also, there is the extra production step
in "optimizing" files in Exchange. Are there any other disadvantages that
we should know about before we implement this solution? TIA.


--------------------------------------------------------------
Greg S. MacGowan
Information Technologies Coordinator (and Webmaster)
Brandeis University Libraries
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA, USA  02254-9110

phone: (781) 736-4690 (W)
fax:    (781) 736-4719 
mailto: macgowan at Brandeis.edu

"You will know when you are calm ... at peace ... passive." -- Yoda