New Web-Based Interfaces to Old Databases

The World-Wide Web provides a wonderful opportunity to make old databases widely available at low cost. While some sacrifices of functionality are inevitable, the potential to reach a world-wide audience through a standard interface far outweigh the drawbacks. This talk discusses how to make old data- and imagebases available over the Web. Specific topics addressed include overcoming limitations of the Web for access to complex and large databases. speeding response time through Javascript and database pre-processing. planning the user interface. imaging considerations. rapid development and deployment techniques. Examples will be taken from the authors' work on Janus (the Web interface to the Census of Antique Art & Architecture Known to the Renaissance) and from other work in progress.