New technology and software such as Ariel and DocView have made it possible for libraries to distribute information to patrons over the Internet. Ariel, a product of the Research Libraries Group, converts paper-based documents to monochrome bitmapped images, and delivers them over the Internet, while the National Library of Medicine's DocView enables library patrons to receive, display and manage documents received from Ariel systems. While libraries and their patrons are beginning to reap the benefits of this new technology, both technological and social barriers still exist that lead to difficulties in the use of library document information. For example, the formats of files received through the Internet may not be usable on the recipient's computer. In addition, disadvantaged groups of people such as the blind and visually impaired often have difficulties in reading either printed or electronic information. To investigate solutions to some of these barriers, the Communications Engineering Branch of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, an R&D division of NLM, has developed a web site called the DocMorph Server. This is part of an ongoing R&D program in document imaging that has spanned many aspects of electronic document conversion and preservation, Internet document transmission and document usage. The DocMorph Server web site allows users to upload document image files via the Internet for conversion to alternative formats (e.g., TIFF to PDF), thereby enabling wider delivery and easier usage of library document information. A recent development in the DocMorph Server is speech synthesis to permit users to convert scanned images of the printed word into the spoken word. From any place on the Internet, a user can upload scanned images of a book, for example, and have DocMorph return a web page that allows the user's computer to read the material out loud. This reading facility enables certain groups of people to read material that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to read. This paper describes the architecture of the prototype DocMorph Server and the design of its computer-assisted reading facility.
