Remarkable New Addition to _Onion Patch(sm): New Age Public Access Systems_

[Gerry Mckiernan]

    I am pleased to announce the addition and 
full description of one of the most remarkable 
OPACs or public access systems of which I am aware to _Onion Patch(sm)_ . _Onion Patch(sm) is my Web-based clearinghouse devoted to o projects, research, products and services that support or demonstrate alternative approaches to Second Generation OPACs and other current online public catalogs and indexes. Onion Patch(sm) also includes
descriptions of novel visual interfaces with features and functionalities that potentially can enhance public access systems. 

  The new addition is The Médiathèque, the  multimedia library affiliated with the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique / Musique (IRCAM), Paris, France.

  The Médiathèque provides access to its public access catalog in four major ways: 

     * conventional, forms-oriented searching 
     * browsing by a locally-developed Dewey-like              decimal classification 
     *  navigation and searching using a floor plan 
      * navigation and browsing in 3-D VRML virtual              reality 
 
  Using the floor plan, users can browse a shelf and the associated classification of library materials on these shelves, and subsequently retrieve the catalog record for selected items, and then the item (text, audio, video, CD-ROM file(s)), if available online. 

  While most innovative here is the links to a variety of 
online sources from the catalog record which is browsable from the floor plan.

  What is more innovative and remarkable is a
virtual reality interface to the OPAC that literally
(or virtually) allows users to browse the virtual 
representation of the Médiathèque including its
stacks. After such browsing, users can then execute
a search of a linked OPAC for the selected classification.

   The Cosmo plug-in is required for the virtual tour
[Relatively easy to download/install].

   Further description of the Médiathèque system 
as well as links to key references of this very special *special library* as well as a link to the Médiathèque
public access system and virtual library are available
from _Onion Patch(sm)_ at 

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/Onion.htm

   I am greatly interested in learning of other innovative 
OPACs for future review and would most appreciate Any and All nominations for future inclusion in _Onion Patch_

  Regards,

/Gerry McKiernan
Theoretical Librarian
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

    "Words still have ... primacy, but they can be illuminated by images and moving pictures and by numbers and by sounds."
   Tom Wilson / "In the Beginning Was the Word ..." /  ELVIRA2: 1