Z39.50 and the World Wide Web

[Kevin C. Marsh]

>Through our work for the EC libraries programme "ARCA" project, we
>have come face-to-face with some of the issues of Z39.50 compared with
>and opposed to the WWW. We have put together some initial thoughts on
>an integration path for Z39.50 and the WWW. More specifically, we have
>thought about what each of the environments might stand to gain from a
>greater level of integration with the other.
>
>Comments and discussion are invited.

Bravo!  A very cogent analysis of the existing/potential relationship
between the Web and Z39.50.  

I'm a bit concerned about your statements regarding the intergration of
Z39.50 client capability into Web browsers.  "Again, static documents
containing Z39.50 URLs will provide an increasingly important means of
discovering and accessing information resources, as WWW- browsers with
Z39.50 client-capabilities become
commonplace."

It is my impression that this is NOT happening, and will not happen short of
significant public demand.  Netscape in particular has stated that it has no
plans to support additional protocols, relying on Java applets or similar
add-ons instead.  Java's security provisions make it a poor choice for a
Z39.50 client.  I agree that Z39.50-enabled Web browsers would be good but I
don't think we can assume they will be commonplace, or even available.

This leaves us with the need for CGI gateways between the web browsers and
the Z39.50 databases.  Instead of a Z39.50 URL I send a command-line string
with host, port, and database information to the nearest available Z39.50
client CGI script.  I'm not saying that this is the optimal way to do it,
just the best I can come up with for now.  I'd be interested to hear what
solutions others propose.

P.S.  I looked at the Web site in your signature (http://www.index.dk or
http://130.225.252.168), and I'm impressed.  I'll be testing your Zebra
Z39.50 server soon.  It appears to have the flexible tools for identifying
document structure and fielded information that Isite lacks.

Kevin C. Marsh, Executive Director
Information Access Institute
IAI at neosoft.com     http://www.neosoft.com/~iai