Database of databases

Wed Oct 23 11:37:01 EDT 1996

At 11:49 AM 10/22/96 -0700, Thomas H. Hahn wrote:

>Dear colleagues,
>
>However, the point is that the OCLC
>project of cataloging  "the net" is not done that way (so we
>heard), but, rather, the information is stored in, well, in what? Perhaps it
>is
>MARC (USMARC, UNIMARC) they use, a medium that may provide all
>the tags to actually describe the digital media itself.
>
>       Thomas H. Hahn
>  University of Heidelberg
>Institut for Chinese Studies

The NetFirst database, part of the FirstSearch system, stores records in
BER format. When you access FirstSearch via the WWW, what your actually
using is WebZ (Z39.50-1995 standard), a Z39.50 to WWW gateway, which
converts the BER records to HTML on the fly.

I have installed OCLC's WebZ locally on our library server and working in
conjunction with our Sirsi Unicorn library system which supports the Z39.50
protocol, faculty, staff and students can search our library catalog using
Netscape.

I am just beginning to experiment with creating MARC records which have an
imbedded URL in the 856 tag and loading these records on our Unicorn
system. For example, I scanned in and digitized a recent article in our
college journal about our new president, G. David Pollick. I then ftp'd
this image file up to our WWW server. Next, I created a MARC record on our
Unicorn system cataloging the article in our journal and included an 856
tag with the URL pointing to the digitized image. After a user searches our
Unicorn catalog using Netscape (and they can search by the president's
name, the title of the article, the author of the article, the journal
title),and the full record is displayed, the URL is "hot" and the user can
click on it to load the image of the original article in the college
journal.

What I can't do is actually store the full text of the article within our
library system and do a search on full text. For that, I believe would need
OCLC's SiteSearch software of which WebZ is a component and actually stores
records in BER format rather than MARC. These records would reside in a
different database from our library MARC records yet WebZ would be able to
search both dbs (even, perhaps, simultaneously in "virtual catalog"
fashion.

We subscribe to Britannica Online and it is an easy matter for me to
construct a MARC record cataloging this resource and to include a URL in
the 856 tag pointing to the resource. So a user can once again use Netscape
and search our library catalog for "Britannica" and retrieve are a record
not only for our print copy but also for the electronic subscription
version and they can access it directly from the displayed record itself.

Hope all of this helps.

You might wish to explore SiteSearch and WebZ at:

http://www.oclc.org/oclc/promo/9711site/9711toc.htm

WebZ can be demo'd at:

http://cypress.dev.oclc.org:8000/

Below, if your interested, is a record retrieved from the demo NetFirst db
via the Z39.50 server at OCLC which was converted by that server from BER
to MARC via an FCL (Format Control Language) script before being "served"
to me. I used a Z39.50 client to access and search NetFirst. My local copy
of WebZ can be configured to also search NetFirst or any of the available
FirstSearch databases in which case what is going on is like this:

BER record (FS db) --> Z39.50 server @ OCLC --> MARC --> WebZ @ LVC --> HTML

recordSyntax='1.2.840.10003.5.10'

record 2
tag=1, class=1, form=1, count=13
    tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=8
        tdata=cmm
    tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=6
        tdata=ntf218
    tag=5, class=2, form=0, count=8
        tdata=19950814
    tag=8, class=2, form=0, count=40
        tdata=950814s9508
    tag=82, class=2, form=1, count=4
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=5
            tdata=597.8
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=5
            tdata=591.4
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=5
            tdata=003.3
    tag=245, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=37
            tdata=Virtual Frog Dissection Kit Info Page
    tag=256, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=23
            tdata=World Wide Web Resource
    tag=260, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=69
            tdata=Imaging and Distributed Computing Group, Lawrence Berkeley Lab
\
                 oratory
    tag=520, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=264
            tdata=Allows interactive dissection of a frog, and includes the capa
                 bility to make on- the-fly movies. Needs a browser that suppor\
                 ts forms and sensitive images. Available in a number of langua\
                 ges. Contains the Virtual Frog Builder Game to test knowledge \
                 of frog anatomy.
    tag=856, class=2, form=1, count=5
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=13, class=2, form=0, count=25
            tdata= webmaster at george.lbl.gov
        tag=13, class=2, form=0, count=19
            tdata=dwrobertson at lbl.gov
        tag=29, class=2, form=0, count=5
            tdata=http:
        tag=21, class=2, form=0, count=54
            tdata=http://george.lbl.gov/ITG.hm.pg.docs/dissect/info.html
    tag=650, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=5
            tdata=Frogs
    tag=650, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=10
            tdata=Dissection
    tag=650, class=2, form=1, count=2
        tag=0, class=2, form=0, count=2
            tdata=
        tag=1, class=2, form=0, count=19
            tdata=Computer simulation

Stan Furmanak                                   (717) 867-6973 voice

Systems and Reference Librarian                 (717) 867-6979 fax
Bishop Library                                  furmanak at lvc.edu
Lebanon Valley College                          http://www.lvc.edu/

Annville, Pa 17003