Netscape compatible standard vs. Z39.50?

[Stan Furmanak]

At 1:55 PM -0400 4/4/97, Mike Mitchell wrote:
>        Hi all! A regional system is proposing to provide access to a union
>MARC database. There is discussion advocating the use of a "Netscape
>compatible standard" over Z39.50 client-server architecture.

[snip]

>If the system used Z39.50 compliant server software shouldn't the
>client side software be able to be installed at the same site (same machine
>even) to provide translation to web browsers of all kinds accessing the
>site?

>Mike Mitchell

I suppose the term "Netscape compatable standard" is just fancy talk for
using Netscape (or any www client for that matter) as your front end. What
LC has installed is CNIDR's Isite system
(http://www.cnidr.org/ir/isite.html) which is an http-->z39.50 gateway
system which in turn communicates with z39.50 compatable servers. So you
have something like this:

                                               |--> z3950 server #1
WWW browser --> http server -->z3950 gateway --|--> z3950 server #2
                                               |--> z3950 server #3

Of course, if you have a z39.50 client like Sirsi's Vizion, Bookwhere, or
Willow, you can directly to the zserver bypassing gateway access. OCLC has
a demo zapplet which adds Z39.50 client functionality to Netscape.

For a good example of an http/z39.50 gateway software package, check out
OCLC's WebZ at http://cypress.dev.oclc.org:8000. This gateway offers
multicasting, or the ability to search multiple dbs in one shot, browsing,
sort service, and a termfinder or thesaurus service.

IOLS vendors offer add ons to their basic systems such as Sirsi's WebCat or
DRA's DRA Web which allow WWW access to the library catalog and remote
Z39.50 servers.




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

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