In the following, you will find information that will be helpful for effectively using the CD-ROM set for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (1953-1997).
- Contents of the CD-ROM set
- Software Requirements
- How to access the Contents?
- Instructions for Changing CD-ROMs
- Trademark Information
Contents of the CD-ROM set
The CD-ROM set contains an electronic version of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (IEEE_IT) from 1953 thru 1997. There are 11 CD-ROMs in the set numbered 1 thru 11. Each technical item, a technical article, a correspondence, a correction, a comment or a review, is captured in the electronic version of IEEE_IT. All the technical items articles (except for those dated 1997) are stored in Acrobat PDF (image+hidden text) format. Such a format allows one to store an accurate image of the paper copy while the recognized text is made available for full-text search. Technical items from 1997 are available in normal PDF format where the file contains only the characters not the image.
There are about 6700 technical items in the collection. There are Author, Subject and Transactions indexes for accessing the technical items. For each author, there is a list of papers published by the author in the IEEE_IT Transactions. Under each subject word, there is also a list of papers. Moreover, there is a bookmark file for each technical item. The bookmark file gives easy access for all the `in-links’ and the `out-links’ of the technical item. In particular, you can access a subset of hyperlinked references/citations from the bookmark file. All the index files and the bookmark files are in HTML format.
The total collection exceeds 6 Gigabytes in size. The content is partitioned among 11 CD-ROMs. The following table provides the partition of the content among the CD-ROMs. Note that CD-ROM 7 contains the Acrobat Reader software.
| CD Number | CD Content |
| 1 | 1997, 1996, 1995 September and November |
| 2 | 1995 January thru July, 1994, 1993 September and November |
| 3 | 1993 January thru July, 1992, 1991 September and November |
| 4 | 1991 January thru July, 1990, 1989 May thru November |
| 5 | 1989 January and March, 1988, 1987, 1986 |
| 6 | 1985-1982 |
| 7 | 1981-1978 |
| 8 | 1977-1974; Acrobat Reader |
| 9 | 1973-1970 |
| 10 | 1969-1964 |
| 11 | 1963-1953 |
Software Requirements
The CD-ROM is prepared in ISO 9660 format and should be readable on most CD-ROM drives under Windows, Macintosh, and many flavors of UNIX (including Sun Solaris and Linux). In particular, the CD-ROM set is tested under Winows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Macintosh 7.5.3 or higher, Sun Solaris 4.3, and Linux operating systems. You would need a web browser with Acrobat PDF plug-in for accessing the contents of the CD-ROM set. The index files and bookmarks are in HTML format and the files containing technical content are in Acrobat PDF format.
IEEE-IT digital library can best be viewed with either Netscape Navigator (3.0 or higher) or Microsoft Internet Explorer (4.0 or higher) configured to handle Acrobat PDF files and Javascript. It is essential that you install Acrobat Reader (or Exchange) along with your Internet browser. Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at http://adobe.com. In our experience, we found that Netscape Communicator 4.0 handles Javascript and Acrobat PDF better. Hence, we highly recommend Netscape Communicator 4.0 or higher, which you can obtain for free.
For your convenience, we have included a free distribution of Acrobat Reader on CD-ROM 7. You will find the directory ACROREAD on CD-ROM 7. ACROREAD contains a directory for your specific platform which includes the Acrobat Reader+Search software. Brief instructions for installing this software onto your hard disk follow. Please see the README file accompanying the Acrobat Reader for more information.
Macintosh Version
Run the “Install Acrobat Reader 3.0” program in ACROREAD/MAC/READER.
Microsoft Windows 95/NT Version
Run[CD-ROM Drive]:\ACROREAD\WIN\32BIT\SETUP.EXE and follow the instructions on the screen to finish the installation.
Unix Version
For installation instructions, see the INSTGUID.TXT file in the ACROREAD/UNIX directory. The Acrobat Reader+Search install script is:ACROREAD/UNIX/INSTALL.
How to Access the Content?
The starting point for accessing the IEEE-IT digital library is the file welcome.htm in the top level directory of any CD-ROM in the set. Although the content the index files are replicated on all the CD-ROMs and therefore the IEEE-IT digital library can be accessed starting from any CD-ROM. When you try to access content that is not part of the current CD-ROM, you will be prompted to change the CD-ROM.
On UNIX platforms, when you insert a CD-ROM, a specific directory by the name IEEE_IT will be created under the directory /cdrom. Under this directory, you will find the IEEE_IT files from the CD-ROM in the drive. You will also find a default directory called “cdrom0” under the directory /cdrom. The directory “cdrom0” is a softlink to the IEEE_IT directory and thus gives access to the contents of the current CD-ROM in the drive. It is essential that you use the pathname /cdrom/cdrom0/welcome.htm to access the welcome.htm in the top-level directory of the CD-ROM. Such a path will remain the same even when you change the CD-ROM thus providing a smooth transition to another CD-ROM.
The interface is fairly intuitive: the left hand frame of the browser window contains Subject, Author and Transactions indexes. These indexes are global and give you access to the entire content.
Clicking on an author name would bring a list of papers published by the author in IEEE-IT Transactions. Clicking on the date (such as “May 1976”) would bring you the Table of Contents for the issue. Clicking on the title would bring you the technical item in PDF format either in an internal window or in an external window based on your configuration of the Acrobat plug-in within your browser. Along with the PDF file, a bookmark file will appear in the bottom left frame. This bookmark file contains pointers to various “in-links” and “out-links” corresponding to the title. The bookmarks will stay in the left frame until you bring up another title.
Acrobat PDF files are in searchable (image+hidden text) format. You can search within each individual file using the Acrobat search function.
On-line version of the IEEE-IT digital library can be accessed by clicking on the On-line button from the start page.
Instructions for Changing the CD-ROMs
In the course of accessing certain links in the IEEE-IT digital library CD-ROM set, a window will appear in your web browser application asking “Please enter CD-ROM # and then click OK” (where # is the number of the IEEE-IT CD-ROM that contains the requested files). Platform-specific instructions for changing the CD-ROMs are provided below.
Windows 95/NT Users
Pop open the CD-ROM drive by physically pressing the Eject button on the CD-ROM drive of your windows PC. Then insert the CD-ROM with the appropriate number. Wait till the CD-ROM “stabilizes”. A sure sign is that you will find `IEEE_IT’ icon next to your CD-ROM drive letter in Windows Explorer. Then press OK in the Javascript Window that prompted you to change the CD-ROM.
If by chance you insert the wrong CD-ROM and pressed OK, you will get two error messages indicating that the requested PDF file and the correspoding bookmark file are not found. In order to get the prompt for changing the CD-ROM back, reload (better yet, force reload, cotrol-C+Reload) the current document and then click on the title once again.
Unix/Linux Users
Make sure that you used the pathname /cdrom/cdrom0/welcome.htm to access the IEEE-IT digital library contents for the first time. This generic pathname will remain valid when you change the CD-ROMs.
On UNIX platforms, one has to issue an explicit `eject’ or `unmount’ command to eject the CD-ROM from the drive. Then the insert the CD-ROM with the appropriate number. Wait till the CD-ROM “stabilizes”. A sure sign is that you will find `IEEE_IT’ directory as well as the cdrom0 directory under the directory /cdrom. Then press OK in the Javascript Window that prompted you to change the CD-ROM.
If by chance you insert the wrong CD-ROM and pressed OK, you will get two error messages indicating that the requested PDF file and the correspoding bookmark file are not found. In order to get the prompt for changing the CD-ROM back, reload (better yet, force reload, cotrol-C+Reload) the current document and then click on the title once again.
Macintosh Users
In order to switch CD-ROMs on a Macintosh, do the following:
- Pull down the “Application” menu in the upper-right hand corner of the menubar and select the Finder entry from the list of currently running applications in order to switch the Finder to the foreground.
- If there are application windows blocking the view of your Finder desktop, pull down the Application menu again and select the “Hide Others” option to temporarily hide the other windows.
- Select the “IEEE_IT” CD-ROM icon on the Finder desktop and drag it to the Trash Can to eject it.
- Insert the specified IEEE_IT CD-ROM and wait for it to appear on your Finder desktop.
- To return to browsing the IEEE_IT digital library, pull down the Application menu and select the entry for your web browser application (e.g. “Netscape Communicator”, “Internet Explorer”, etc.) in order to bring it back to the foreground and continue from where you left off.
If at any time, you should inadvertently hit the OK button before switching CD-ROMs and receive an error about being unable to access a file, simply click on the Reload the button in the web browser to reset the page and try again.
Trademark Information
Acrobat(R) Reader copyright(C) 1987-1998 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
UNIX(R) is a trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclisvely through X/Open Company Ltd.
Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.
Macinstosh is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.