[WEB4LIB] Mozilla RDF / Z39.50 Integration Project

[David Dorman]

At 12:20 PM 11/11/2004, Ross Singer wrote:
>I ran across this while trying out Microsoft's new search service
>(http://beta.search.msn.com/):
>
>http://www.mozilla.org/rdf/doc/z3950.html
>
>Does anybody know anything about this project?  It has the potential for
>being massively cool (I mean, if you find Z39.50 even remotely cool) or
>a completely worthless extremely niche product that has little value to
>anybody.
>
>What is the status of this thing?  What is the expectation of it?  I
>realize there are "Aims" on this page, but what would be a real-world
>application of this?  What are some potential "killer apps"?
>
>-Ross.

Ross,

This project is not active.  Yes, it is a very cool idea, but unfortunately 
the initial efforts generated little interest and no concrete support, 
which the project would need in order to be realized.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the value and continued usefulness 
of Z39.50 in today's Web environment.  The semantic aspects of the standard 
represent a valuable contribution to modern librarianship and should 
continue to be used for standardizing the searching and indexing of 
bibliographic databases.  And they could be extended to encompass other 
types of metadata as well.

However, the excellent semantic standards of Z39.50 are embedded within 
encoding conventions which the library community has never fully 
embraced.  For the last few years, there has been an effort to preserve the 
superb intellectual work that went into defining the semantics of Z39.50 by 
porting them over into the XML-based environment of Web services.  This 
initiative, known as ZING, is alive and well.

The Mozilla RDF/Z39.50 Integration Project is an ambitious offshoot of the 
ZING initiative.  My guess is that it was initiated too early to garner the 
support necessary for its success.  Few people have yet to experience the 
power of Z39.50 semantics in a Web environment, and fewer yet 
appreciate--or even understand--the potential benefits of the Resource 
Description Framework (RDF).

However, Z39.50 is gradually being ported over to the XML-based technology 
of Web services. The YAZ programmer's toolkit, which has been used to build 
from one-half to two-thirds of all Z39.50 client and server applications 
around the world, and which the Mozilla RDF Integration Project is slated 
to use (if the project ever gets off the ground), has already been upgraded 
to bring it into the world of Web services.  YAZ supports the Search and 
Retrieve URL Service (SRU) and the Search/Retrieve Web Service (SRW), which 
together enable Z3950 calls to be made from within XML-based Web services 
without requiring the developer to delve into the arcane and 
little-understood mechanics of Z39.50.

SRU/SRW functionality has already allowed libraries and vendors to build 
Z3.50 servers that can retrieve MARC records and convert them on the fly to 
MARCXML, from which they can be sent through XSLT style sheets to be 
displayed in any way a library requires.  Thanks to newly enhanced tools 
such as YAZ, libraries can now look forward to automatically re-purposing 
their catalog records for such Web-based uses as current awareness lists, 
subject guides, and course syllabi.

Just as catalogers are beginning to realize that the decades of 
intellectual work that went into AACR, AACR2 and more specialized 
cataloging standards such as LCSH, ISSN, etc. can be ported over from MARC 
to XML, so people who design search and retrieval (S&R) systems are now 
realizing that the intellectual work that went into Z39.50 can be ported 
over to XML as well.

When ZING services begin to be widely deployed, more librarians will 
recognize that Z39.50 is not dead, but has just needed a face lift.  When 
that happens, then maybe there will be more recognition that the Mozilla 
RDF Integration Project deserves widespread support.  Until then, it waits 
in limbo.

David




David Dorman
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