Searching your web pages

[The Big Glee Bopper]

On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, dan marmion wrote:

> iai at neosoft.com (Kevin C. Marsh) said:
> >
> >In order for the Internet to reach it's potential as an information
> >resource, it is essential that every serious knowledge collection comply
> >with the Z39.50 standard.  .....
> >We are experiencing the same kind of problems today with Internet databases
> >that we had 20 years ago with local library automation systems.  We demanded
> >MARC compliance then and we should demand Z39.50 compliance now.
> 
> Yes!  YES!  We must all, together, insist upon Z39.50 compliant systems.
> To do any less is to abandon our responsibilities as information
> professionals.

I think you have to be sorta cautious of Z39.50. In the NISO 
specifications it explicitly states: This standard is intended 
particularly for use by systems supporting information retrieval services 
for organizations such as libraries, information utilities, and union 
catalogue centers...

Z39.50 came before the web is is not really designed for browsing which 
is what most folks do with the web. 

I think Z39.50 is important but I think IR has significantly changed, 
browsing being the biggest difference. I am not arguing for anyone to 
support a vendor with a proprietary format or approach.

--Thom