Fwd: Re: Target->Z39.50 protocol

[Laura Richards <LERich7@AOL.COM>]

One more good posting about the Z39.50 protocol.

Laura Richards, Central School, Glencoe, IL  (LERich7@aol.com)
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:   morgan@tenet.edu (Cora Bigwood)
To:     LERich7@aol.com (Laura Richards)
Date: 97-03-27 20:46:38 EST

The Z39.50 standard, as I understand it, allows different computers to
interface using a standard language.  It is for all platforms, PC, MAC,
UNIX.  Using it you could search a database, or OPAC, using the local
dsplay and commands, no matter what display and commands the remote
machine used.  All machines would look like your system, so you would not
have to know if the remote used //t ot t= or t\ or f xt to search for a
title.  You would just use whatever command you used on your home system.
It is very nice for patrons who may be searching not only your OPAC, but
also remote ones as well.

2 very important developments, in my opinion, are including genre/form
information in field 655 of the MARC record.  This is a recent addition
to the MARC standard.  It will be so nice to find books which are
mysteries without also getting books about mysteries, for example.  i
have not seen any system which provides a seperate index to 655, most
just dump it into the 6XX fields, but it is comming.

The 2nd development to watch is the Dublin Metadata Core Elements.  These
are a set of basic descriptors for Web pages.  I feel they will allow us
to index, sort and catalog Web pages much better if they gain wide
acceptance.  They will give some standardization to pages and the
information about them to work off.  Much like a title page of a book.
We do not realize just how much standardization there is in books until
we use the Web for a bit.  Title page up front, table of contents, index
at the back, divided into chapters, page numbers, even pages on the
verso, etc.  I very uch hope they become widespread.

Sincerely,
David Bigwood
bigwood@lpi.jsc.nasa.gov
Lunar & Planetary Institute