HELIOS stands for the Heinz Electronic Library Interactive Online System. Using this tool, it is possible to search, browse and view nearly 800,000 images from the Heinz Congressional Papers, which are contained in the Senator H. John Heinz III Archives at the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. HELIOS facilitates improved services from the Heinz Archives by providing researchers with state-of-the-art electronic access to archival source material. Not only does HELIOS make archival information instantly available to users across the globe, it offers advanced information retrieval capabilities that can significantly enhance their research activities. The HELIOS project is supported by the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation, the Heinz Company Foundation, and the Howard and Vira I. Heinz Endowments. Additional funding is provided by Carnegie Mellon University and CLARITECH Corporation. The HELIOS project addresses a number of critical problems, including: Preservation — HELIOS pioneers a digital archival method of high-resolution scanning and image storage. Access — Since HELIOS is available on the Internet, the collection is accessible to many people simultaneously from locations across the world at all hours. Scholarship — Researchers can explore the digital archive in new ways using powerful new text-searching and retrieval tools, including automatic, on-the-fly discovery of related terminology, and concept-based matching and relevance ranking. The Heinz collection is a rich source of information about the senator's contributions to the U.S. Congress. It addresses the social and political concerns of the nation during his tenure. HELIOS and its underlying technology will serve as the "seed" and framework for a digital archive of wider scope: a unified public-policy resource for a widespread community of researchers. It will forge links to other resources with themes related to those of the Heinz collection. For more information or to receive a brochure about the HELIOS project, contact helios-help@andrew.cmu.edu. Back to Top