The IEEE publishes more than 90 journals, 200 conference proceedings, 100 technical standards and 75 books annually. Topics covered include information technology, communications, medicine and management in addition to topics of interest to electrical engineers and computer scientists - such as graphics, networks, microwaves, semiconductors, optics and acoustics.

Articles and conference papers from 1989 to the present have been scanned and loaded onto the MELVYL database. Photos, charts, diagrams and even Dilbert cartoons appear online just as they do on the printed page. Later, the IEEE hopes to make their technical standards available through the project.

The full text images can be displayed on computers equipped with X-Windows software. The campus has obtained site-licenses for X Software for Macs and PCs, and the General Library has workstations capable of displaying IEEE images. Users will not need any special password to access the IEEE images, but will need to register, answer a few demographic questions, and choose a User Name and User Key the first time they request a display of an IEEE page image.

The images of IEEE publications are linked to the corresponding records in the INSPEC database in the MELVYL System. Individual records indicate whether an image is available. After requesting the display of the image (type: *d 5 image* to view item 5, for example) the first page of the requested article will appear on the computer screen. Then the entire journal issue may be examined, article by article or page by page. Researchers can also jump to articles in a different issue or volume of the same journal.

No downloading or mailing of images is planned. Currently, IEEE users must print articles to a networked printer with Postscript capabilities. Both Shields Library (IT Express) and the Physical Sciences Library will have printing available for a fee.

UC's Division of Library Automation (DLA) currently receives IEEE articles as bit-mapped images, scanned at 300 dots-per-inch. Future plans include transmitting publications to DLA in other formats which will allow the higher quality images to be available before the print publication is mailed to subscribers. DLA, in turn, is developing a method to allow people to print images without first viewing them and is designing a Web interface for the MELVYL System.

Further inquiries regarding the IEEE/UC Project may be sent to pslref@ucdavis.edu. For more technical information on authorizing the display of images to local servers and for printing, check the Physical Sciences Library homepage, which is located at http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/psl/subjects/engr/ieee.html