AN EXTENSIBLE SHELL FOR INFORMATION ACCESS IN HETEROGENEOUS ENVIRONMENTS

THE INNOVATION DESCRIBED HERE IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFTWARE TOOL, INFOSHELL, THAT ADDRESSES THE PROBLEM OF ASSISTING USERS TO LOCATE AND ACCESS MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION RESIDENT IN HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENTS. INFOSHELL EMBODIES A NOVEL APPROACH WHICH MERGES THE STATE OF THE ART IN USER INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY WITH PROVEN CONCEPTS OF THE "LIBRARY" PARADIGM TO PROVIDE AN ICON-DRIVEN, INTEGRATED, EXTENSIBLE, USER FRIENDLY, AND PORTABLE FRONT-END FOR INFORMATION ACCESS. IN PHASE I, A DETAILED DESIGN OF THE INFOSHELL SOFTWARE WILLBE DEVELOPED. THE APPLICABILITY AND MERIT OF THE SOFTWARE TOOL WILL BE DEMONSTRATED BY DEVELOPING A PROTOTYPE. THE THRUST OF PHASE II WILL BE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INFOSHELL DESIGN DEVELOPED IN PHASE I AND ITS INTEGRATION WITH NASA'S DISTRIBUTED ACCESS VIEW INTEGRATED DATABASE (DAVID) SYSTEM. AN EXTENSIBLE INFORMATION ACCESS FRONT-END THAT INTEGRATES SUPPORT FOR DIVERSE INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIORS AND PROVIDES A TRANSPARENT USER INTERFACE ENHANCES THE ACCESSIBILITY AND THUS THE UTILIZATION OF A CRITICAL RESOURCE, INFORMATION.