RDesk was developed with three guidelines in mind: 1) RDesk should be fast and stable, 2) easily extendable, and 3) should become a rich platform for academic research and study. Because RDesk was designed to reside in a University setting, stability was essential. Also, because academic research is not static, it was important that RDesk be highly extendable - this was achieved through RDesk Module files.

"The RDesk vision: 1) Teach the user how to perform meaningful academic research 2) provide the tools for which to do so and 3) provide a platform for librarians and instructors to collaborate and present course content addressing research requirements.

The RDesk program has three distinct sub-components structured around the RDesk vision that seamlessly work together to perform specific tasks:

Teach the user how to perform meaningful academic research:

RDesk disciplines are content written specifically for areas of study. A Genealogy discipline was included with the first release of RDesk but future disciplines depend on you. Any content adhering to RDesk guidelines discussed later in this paper will be immediately included into RDesk. Disciplines are dependent on knowledge sharing because users will gain much more through subject disciplines written by members of a specific field of discipline rather than through generic instruction. This is also an excellent way to get published! [All material remains the copyright of the original author].

Provide the tools for which to do so:

Academic and instructional software can be very expensive. This is not the goal of RDesk. RDesk integrates the needed elements of research in an easy to use graphical user interface. The following are some items included in RDesk: The RDesk mediator browser, fully featured word processor, academic instruction, comprehensive help on research, telnet/tn3270 client, and an extendable module file architecture.

Provide a platform for librarians and instructors to collaborate and present course content addressing research requirements:

Module files, the components that make RDesk so extendable, were created with instructors and librarians in mind. The purpose of a module file is to give the user course specific research information for a research requirement. Module files, however, are not limited to course research requirements. Anyone wishing to make information readily available on a certain subject may harness the instructional power of modules. For more information on Modules and the Module format, consult our Module technical white paper.

Average Download Times
(Your download time may vary)
* 56K Modem - 10 minutes, 25 seconds.
* ISDN - 4 minutes, 20 seconds.
* T1 - 22 seconds.