Z39.50 and the JISC Services

1
Z39.50 and the JISC Services

• Brian Kelly
• UK Web Focus
• UKOLN
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/
• B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk

2
Who's Using It?

• Which JISC services are currently using Z39.50?
• Which JISC services have tested Z39.50?

3
The Problem

• End users face difficulties due to the wide
  variety of search interfaces available

4
Possible Solutions

• Agree to use the same software
• Unlikely to happen
• Undesirable
• Agree to use implement similar interfaces
• The Common User Interface (JISC) group gave
  reasons why this wasn't sensible
• Use software which implements protocol designed
  to provide common search interface across diverse
  services
• Z39.50

5
What Is Z39.50?

• Z39.50
• A protocol which specifies data structures and
  interchange rules that allow a client machine to
  search databases on a server machine and retrieve
  records that are identified as a result of the
  search
• Maintained by Library of Congress
• Developed by ZIG
• Why is it important?
• Powerful searching
• Local, familiar interface
• Retrieves structured data

6
What's It Look Like?

• Z39.50 services can be accessed using Web
  browsers.

http//www.niss.ac.uk/z3950/z3950.html

• NISS provides access to
• HEQC - Access Courses Database
• CIA World Factbook

Full Record United Kingdom lt//COUNTRY United
Kingdom, Geography Location Western Europe,
bordering on the North Atlantic Ocean and the
North Sea, between Ireland and
France lt//LOCATION Map references Europe,
Standard Time Zones of the World lt//MAPREF Area
total area 244,820 sq km land area
241,590 sq km comparative area slightly
smaller than Oregon note includes Rockall and
Shetland Islands Land boundaries total 360
km, Ireland 360 km lt//BOUNDARIES
7
What's It Look Like? (2)

• Europagate is a Multifunctional Gateway for
  Information Retrieval Protocols

http//europagate.dtv.dk/
8
Z39.50 Clients (1)

• Dedicated Z39.50 clients are available.
• Issues
• Which is the best client?
• Costs
• Additional software for computing services to
  support

Znavigator Client
9
Z39.50 Clients (2)

• Z39.50 clients could be written in Java.

• Issues
• Client managed by server provider
• Integrated with web browser
• How widespread is support for Java?

Contact M.J.Ridley_at_comp.brad.ac.uk for details
10
Questions About Java

• Is Java ready for prime time?
• Widespread support in existing browsers
• Support promised in operating systems
• Minimises local installation/support effort
• Exploit local PC processing power
• Potential for negotiation over processing
• Server Do you do Java
• Client No
• Server OK, I'll do the processing and give you
  the HTML
• But
• ???

11
Who Benefits?

• End User
• Ease of use
• Productivity gains
• Information Service Provider
• More effective use of service
• Service "hidden"
• Complex (?) Z39.50 software to support
• Local Support Service (IT/Library)
• Reductions in user queries
• Extra client software to support
• Where is the pressure for Z39.50 coming from?

12
Remember WAIS?

• WAIS
• "Inspired" by Z39.50 (1988)
• Still used for searching sites
• Distributed searching did not take off - why?

• At Leeds University
• Computing Service documents indexed using WAIS
  (HTML and Postscript)
• WWWWAIS gateway used
• WAIS server not centrally registered
• Work done in early 1994

13
Institutional Acceptance

• Is it desirable for UK HEIs to run their own
  Z39.50 servers?
• How should searching across UK HEI's web pages be
  achieved
• Centralized harvest of pages
• Everyone running Z39.50 servers and gateways

14
Potential For JISC Services

• Image a chemist who wants to find out more about
  CML (Chemical Markup Language) and the Jumbo CML
  browser
• find Jumbo and CML
• Hits from
• HENSA archive of software
• Mailbase archives containing discussions about
  the software
• A chemistry information gateway

15
Implementation Issues

• What needs to be done to implement a Z39.50
  service?
• Systems issues
• server models
• client issues
• Other issues
• attribute set mapping
• etc.

16
Implementation Models

• There are several models for running a Z39.50
  service across national services

WWW server
Z39.50 Gateway
Information service providers run Z39.50 and WWW
gateway software
Z39.50Server
WWW/Z39.50 Gateway
WWW-Z39.50 gateways provided(a) nationally (b)
distributed (organisations/regions)

• Clients
• Dedicated Z39.50 clients may be used
• Java Z39.50 clients may be used
• Web browsers may be used

17
UKOLN Experiences

• Evaluating Europagate (gateway), Zebra and Isite
  (Z39.50 servers) with
• eLib project descriptions
• National Art Library
• ADAM service
• Ariadne

See pointer to Experimental Z39.50 servers at
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/
18
Alternatives To Z39.50

• Do Nothing
• Do Like Me
• Centralised Database
• Harvest gathers
• Use Other Protocols
• LDAP
• Whois
• Solutions At Other Levels
• Application Layer
• CORBA / IIOP
• Distributed Objects (see MIDRIB)

19
What Next?

• What should we do next?
• Agree on a model for JISC services?
• Agree on a diversity of models and share
  experiences?
• Find out what others are doing?
• Find out about plans for client systems within
  community?
• Remember other technological developments we'll
  have to consider
• XML Cougar Stylesheets
• Java ActiveX Authentication
• Metadata PICS
• ...

20
Further Information

• For further information on Z39.50 see
• UKOLN's list of resources at http//www.ukoln.ac.u
  k/z3950/
• Z39.50 Client Survey athttp//www.dstc.edu.au/RDU
  /reports/zreviews/z3950-client-survey.html
• DLIB article The Z39.50 Information Retrieval
  Standard Part I A Strategic View of Its Past,
  Present and Future at http//hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/mi
  rrored/lis-journals/dlib/dlib/dlib/april97/04cont
  ents.html