The ANSI/NISO Z39.50 Protocol: Information Retrieval in the Information Infrastructure

NEW INITIATIVES INVOLVING Z39.50

Awareness of the protocol by individuals and organizations is increasing because of the many operational Z39.50 implementations now used for information retrieval. While the standard had its origins in the bibliographic community of libraries and bibliographic utilities, the increasing awareness by other communities is sparking new Z39.50 initiatives. The following shows the range of applications for which Z39.50 may be used:

• The Government Information Locator Service (GILS) is intended to help the public locate and access information throughout the U.S government. GILS will use Z39.50 to provide a seamless connection between distributed GILS servers.

• The Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) is examining Z39.50 to assist CIMI in its goals of developing museum resources on digital networks and assuring standards-based open interchange of museum information.

• National Spatial Data Infrastructure is a Federal initiative established for the discovery and retrieval of geospatial data. A technical working group is developing a Z39.50 attribute set for spatial query and retrieval of spatially referenced data and documents.

• Z39.50 Gateways for World Wide Web and Gopher enable the users of these two popular network tools, including Mosaic clients, to search Z39.50 servers.

The 1992 publication of Version 2, the new features in the Draft Version 3, the interoperability testbed and its confirmation that the protocol works effectively in the Internet, solid experience by Z39.50 developers and implementors, and increased awareness by information providers and consumers are focusing attention on the central role of Z39.50 for information retrieval in the national and global information infrastructure.

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