>   The real library consists of the union of the local collections.

The local collections can be stored in different system files.

>   We say that the library collection is distributed over the net.

>   The repository names are chosen based on a set of rules which guarantee their uniqueness all over the net. For that reason the repositories are said to be uniform.

The same repository can be in more than one local collection (there is no conflict name).

Example of a repository within two local collections:

The relative path from a repository to another is local collection independent.

Let R2 be the repository dpi.inpe.br/ronei/1996/11.20.18.56 in the above example, then the relative path from R1 to R2 in the first local collection is:

../../../../dpi.inpe.br/ronei/1996/11.20.18.56

and it is also the relative path from R3 to R2, although R2 and R3 are in another local collection.