TIFF Plug-Ins and USPTO

[Robert Sullivan]

Karen Schneider fulminated:

>We too "need" a TIFF plug-in, in the sense that if we don't install one
>we'll be depriving our patrons access to the USPTO database.  But I have
>been glowering for a month over this.  Why did USPTO choose this format?
>Was there any sense that this would create a barrier to access?  Is there a
>*need* to offer these images in TIFF?

I'll second this, and add that Cornell's Making of America
<http://moa.cit.cornell.edu> converts TIFF to GIF on the fly, so there are ways
to make life easier for users.

I tried AlternaTIFF <www.mieweb.com/alternatiff>, which was recently
recommended by LC's Elizabeth Brown.  (QuickTime would display the TIFF image
on my secured IE 5.5 PCs, but it kept asking me to upgrade every time I went to
a new image.)

It works perfectly.  I was able to install it as administrator and have it work
under my secured public account (NT4/SP6a), so it doesn't appear to have any
user-specific settings.  (Sigh of relief)  The only change I made to the
default installation was to check the box which said "Modify my Windows
registry in an attempt to give IE a better chance of deciding to use this
plug-in" and uncheck "Automatically check for new versions."

>Finally, those crabby questions aside, if you are using a TIFF viewer *and*
>Fortres 101 *and* NT 4.0 or Win2K Prof (or if you are using NTFS batch files
>for security and have savvied which files need to be excepted beyond the
>executable), do tell.

No problems so far.  I also tried running it as a public user without running
it first as an admin, and it didn't mind that, either.  As long as you install
it as administrator, you should be OK.

Bob Sullivan                               scp_sulli at sals.edu
Schenectady County Public Library (NY)     http://www.scpl.org