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Library and Information Services in Astronomy III
ASP Conference Series, Vol. 153, 1998
U. Grothkopf, H. Andernach, S. Stevens­Rayburn, and M. Gomez (e
Ö Copyright 1998 Astronomical Society of the Pacific. All rights reserved.
ds.)
Distributed Publishing and HyperCite
Anne Dixon
Institute of Physics Publishing, Dirac House, Temple Back, Bristol, UK,
e­mail: anne.dixon@ioppublishing.co.uk
Abstract. No one publisher or content owner can ever hope to service
all of a given user's information needs. Thus a distributed system of pub­
lishing, whereby each publisher ensures that each ``knowledge pointer'' in
their content links to and from all the other important knowledge pointers
in given subject areas, ensures that users can go on ``information trails''.
These trails become a voyage of discovery and the junction points on these
trails can often be databases, which aim to provide some comprehensive
cover of a subject.
I shall describe Institute of Physics Publishing's e#orts in this area,
including our HyperCite technology, which allows users to roam the lit­
erature, backwards and forwards in time, and to experience fascinating
information trails.
1. Introduction
In this session of the Conference I and my colleagues have been asked to notion
that ``Secondary Services Facilitate Interoperability of Electronic Resources''. I
would argue that ALL content providers should do this -- not just secondary
services. Perhaps I should explain the Institute of Physics Publishing stance
on this. Interoperability of electronic resources can be achieved in several dif­
ferent ways. There is the ``one database solution'', whereby one content owner
aims to provide all the content in a given subject or discipline. Yesterday at
this conference Ann Okerson said that this was ``unattractive to librarians'' and,
also yesterday, it was referred to in the Conference Overview as ``information
monopoly''. Then there is the ``one gateway solution'', as personified by As­
troWeb or Urania, where one entity doesn't own the content, but does aim to
at least point to it all; and finally there is the ``distributed publishing solution'',
which I want to expand on today.
2. Distributed publishing
With a distributed publishing solution all a content owner or provider aims to do
is to link to and from all the important ``knowledge pointers'' in their discipline,
and to enable and encourage others to do so. Therefore one establishes no
technology barriers to the free movement of tra#c, one shares standards and
protocols, one makes no charge for sending visitors to another's site, one agrees
minimum services levels so that users are not disappointed as they move from
115

116 A. Dixon
site to site, and each content provider retains responsibility for any business or
commercial aspects of interaction with an end user at their own site (and only
at their own site).
3. Linking
At IoPP we have been cogitating on this subject for some time, particularly
after the successful launch last year of our HyperCite(tm) linking system, which
links from references backwards and forwards in time. We were aware of other
systems, but they all seemed to be single URL linkers and most of our customers
need, we suspect, wholesale linking systems that insert thousands of links into
big databases, rather than one at a time.
4. STACKS
So we have created STACKS(tm) Science Tables of Content and Abstracts Col­
lection service. At the Conference I referred to this by its working title of
HyperSolve. STACKS(tm) create Tables of Contents with embedded hyperlinks
to IoPP Journals; it automatically creates machine­readible files with URLs and
it does so en masse. It can be used in OPACs, Web Catalogues or by any au­
thorised content holder. The information can be pushed by IoP or pulled by the
client. Registration is easy and quick. Just state your personal preferences (e.g.
send me ToCs of all journals in ASCII files by e­mail once a week) and thereafter
the information is sent when you want it, in the format you have chosen, sent
in the way you want it sent, and about the journals of your choice. We believe
that STACKS(tm) will save librarians time in cataloging, linking and indexing.
5. Libraries as the one­stop­shop
STACKS(tm) users can integrate the machine readable files which include link­
ing URLs, which in turn point to IoP journal abstracts, articles and, using Hy­
perCite(tm), beyond to the INSPEC database, the Los Alamos preprint server,
and to Institute of Physics Publishing's own material. Furthermore this inte­
gration can occur as soon as issues or articles are published online so that a
library's OPAC or Web Catalogue is as up to date as is possible.
STACKS(tm) users can have multiple profiles so that they can, for instance,
serve di#erent libraries on a campus or across a multi­national company. Users
may also create new profiles, alter existing ones, download the SGML (Standard
Generalised Markup Language) DTD (Document Type Definition), or indeed
create a custom tagged format to fit their own systems. If users do not want au­
tomated push or pull services they can visit the service at times which suit them
and generate all available links since their last download, or select titles, years
and issues for which they wish to generate links. It is worth noting that Institute
of Physics Publishing o#ers a free 6 year archive of all its journals to subscribers,
therefore the amount of links available to download is very substantial and could
significantly enhance the value of an Institute of Physics Publishing customer's
site.

Distributed Publishing and HyperCite 117
6. Inter­organisation reference linking
Finally I should explain that STACKS(tm) has many other uses beyond linking
from existing Institute of Physics Publishing customers. It is the perfect vehicle
for other content owners to link into Institute of Physics Publishing material,
be they publishers, secondary services or gateway services. Any enquiries about
using STACKS(tm) should go to sylvie.chenoufi@ioppublishing.co.uk