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The Internet has forced libraries to consider how to assist users to rapidly retrieve information. Such a consideration has accelerated the development of electronic publishing and has positioned the library as mediator between users and providers: archiving information circulation and providing secure copyright clearance through an efficient electronic document delivery and payment mechanism. This work develops an Extensible Markup Language (XML) framework for electronic document delivery that offers a novel electronic document delivery system and also locates publishers who can provide the copyrighted material in an electronic format via the OPAC. The proposed electronic document delivery system has four functions: (1) it enables the electronic document payment; (2) it shortens the time between inquiry and electronic document retrieval; (3) it anticipates the changing role of libraries; and (4) it reduces the printed collection load of libraries.

Document publishing systems are systems that support the creation, storage and subsequent retrieval and dissemination of documents and/or document representation or metadata. They are widely used in information retrieval applications, and in particular, are important in supporting the publication of documents on CD‐ROM or the Web. The publication process involves the following stages: identify content, database set‐up, populate database, publish, process search requests and view/download original. Document publishing systems fall into two categories: those that have developed from text management systems, and those that had their origins in document creation; this gives rise to systems with different ranges of facilities in areas such as data entry and document creation, information retrieval and security. Special issues associated, respectively, with publication on CD‐ROM and through the Web are considered. Future issues for document publishing systems include workgroup publishing, hybrid publication, globalisation, integration and seamless document publishing and management, and further integration with Web server technology.

Outlines the questions to be asked before and during a project to implement an electronic document management system (EDMS). Points out that a complete document management system is more than the hardware and software of the EDMS – the wider system requires effective management, and perhaps even culture change, if it is to be successful.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP), a technological approach for enterprise information systems, has many recorded case examples of lengthy and expensive implementations reported in literature. This research has uncovered an alternative process‐driven and document‐based approach that may offer a simpler and more flexible solution compared with technology‐driven ERP. This paper investigates the differences and similarities of the two approaches, and also answers a related question: Is the enterprise system implementation an information systems effort performed to support the business processes, or is it a process re‐engineering effort required to implement the pre‐packaged software system?

To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches to an enterprise information system, this research developed a unified modeling language (UML) process model of a manufactured housing company and used it as a basis for a conceptual level UML model for both an ERP‐ and a document‐based system.

In a designed experiment with UML‐fluent analysts, the process‐driven document solution to an enterprise information system was shown to be smaller, less complex and more flexible than an ERP solution at the conceptual design level.

Software specifications for the resulting document‐based system included only standard COTS software packages easily usable in companies of any size. Further, the potential for prototype as‐you‐go development offers opportunities for continuous refinement of the system in contrast with the episodic implementation of packaged ERP systems.

This alternative system highlights the desirability, for both academicians and practitioners, of concentrating on processes and then implementing the most suitable technology, rather than allowing the technology to impose constraints on processes.

This paper presents an overview of past and present research projects associated with electronic document delivery. The paper briefly outlines the Follet Report and introduces the UK's Electronics Libraries Programme, including the recently funded Focused Investigation of Document Delivery (FIDDO) project at Loughborough University. Four research areas have been identified as follows: resource sharing projects; network communication projects; electronic scanning projects and electronic document delivery systems. Conclusions highlight the major impact that technological developments are currently having on this area, the need for librarians to reassess their role in the information chain, and the need for delivery systems capable of handling different formats and a wider coverage of material to satisfy requests.

Electronic document delivery is a concept which promises to solve end‐user problems in retrieving the primary information referenced to in bibliographical databases. This article describes an approach to electronic document delivery which gradually evolved at Tilburg University over the past two years, leading to the development of a system called Ariadne. First of all, a pragmatic description of electronic document delivery is developed as a basis for a generation model of electronic document delivery systems. This model is illustrated with short references to existing systems and leads to the identification of global requirements for an Ariadne‐like system. Special attention will be paid to existing and developing standards in this field, notably the work of the Group on Electronic Document Interchange (GEDI). The remainder of the article addresses the general model of Ariadne, currently under development at Tilburg University. The article concludes with some strategic issues for libraries and publishers in this field, and a short look into the future.

This conceptual article aims to discuss how the concept of a document and documentation along with a general document model could inform us in the design and engineering of information or rather documentation systems.

This paper presents a broad and complementary document model, derived from the last couple of decades' discussion on what is a document and what is documentation. This model is used as a basis for a method, a conceptual tool or a template for analysis of socio‐technical systems.

The authors contend that the document systems analysis is a holistic approach compared to the traditional systems design and engineering reductionist approach, and also in the context of sociotechnical systems design. The document model is a taxonomy of the constituents of the document and, the authors argue, a potential communication tool in systems design.

The document model presented in this article is discussed more or less solely in the context of information systems design, specifically sociotechnical systems. Moreover, the authors have tried to fit the theory and model within this context here, even though the concepts and thoughts can have much more general implications.

This presentation of a novel document model and framework is presented as a potential tool for systems analysis and design. The authors regard this as a realistic vision for the framework, but at the current stage of development for the model it is probably more useful as draft for such a tool or framework; a point of departure for the discussion of practical – and theoretical – implications of a broad and holistic document model.

A novel, unpublished document model, derived from theoretical discourses of document ontology in the “neo‐documentalist” movement spawned from a particular research community in Tromsø, Norway, is presented and discussed in the light of information systems design.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how SAGA, a system for managing the library operations associated with document supply, was successfully developed using a very informal project model.

The project model and system architecture are described.

Initially, SAGA was tailored for the needs of the medical library at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Subsequently, it has been implemented at other Swedish academic libraries. The system has features for automating the workflows associated with document supply for both loans and copies externally and internally. It integrates document requests from a diversity of ordering systems under a single interface. The methodology adopted when implementing the system suggests that an incremental approach sometimes has benefits over a more formal pre‐planned approach.

The project model described may be applied to development projects at other libraries. The system architecture may be applied to other systems for managing document supply.

The SAGA approach relies on managing requests placed in different systems via a single interface rather than trying to direct customers to a single ordering system.