By David DormanAmerican Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org
By David Dorman
American Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org
Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois.
Column for February 2000
This month’s column inaugurates a new occasional feature, the Early Warning Alert, spotlighting new-technology initiatives and developments in embryonic form that, if they persist and gain momentum, will result in significant opportunities or challenges for librarians.
This month’s alert concerns the Z39.50 search and retrieval protocol. Z39.50 is a real survivor. It weathered the transition from OSI to TCP/IP back in the late 1980s when the Internet family of protocols swamped the OSI standards initiative. It has successfully distinguished itself from the database-query language SQL on the one hand, and the ILL transaction protocol ISO 10161 on the other hand. For librarians today, Z39.50 is an Internet protocol fully as important as the old standbys FTP and Telnet.
The Mozilla Organization, which is coordinating the development of the browser source code published by Netscape, is hosting an effort to integrate Z39.50 into the Mozilla browser. The effort has yet to get off the ground, but if it bears fruit it would mean that no client software beyond a Web browser would be needed to do a Z39.50 search. In case you’re interested, Mozilla is looking for developers to work on the project. Me, I’ll be cheering from the sidelines. To lend a hand, or to get more information, go to the Mozilla home page.
Almost 18 months ago the Minnesota Library Information Network (MnLINK) selected Taos as its statewide library automation system of choice (AL, Aug. 1998, p. 106) and entered into negotiations with DRA to provide one library system to replace the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Public Access Library System (one of the largest library systems in the country), the University of Minnesota’s Geac system, three public library systems, and at least one school-district system. However, the MnLINK Library Planning Task Force voted November 18 to discontinue contract negotiations with DRA.
The decision was made in response to continuing delays in the development of the Taos system, which resulted in the task force’s inability to determine whether the proposed system could meet the needs of member libraries. The task force has decided to proceed with the development of a new request for proposal, which is scheduled for completion in March 2000. In a memo to the task force, E. Ann Kelley, acting MnLINK project director, said the new RFP will be “less presumptive about system architecture and [will expect] major functionalities to be fully functional.” Vendor selection is planned by December 2000.
How can we organize the World Wide Web? Like the universe of print material, the entire Web is too big and too swiftly changing to be organized in its entirety. Nonetheless, there seem to be a lot of folks out there who are attempting to organize it to get our attention. Among them is Auto-Graphics, which decided to develop a Web finding aid as a service to libraries and their patrons. Called the Library Card, the site was developed by about a half-dozen folks at Auto-Graphics and is now being maintained and expanded by a full-time staffer.
Well-organized and easy to navigate, the service uses a file-folder visual metaphor to classify information, and its content is geared to K–12 students and the general public. Auto-Graphics offers libraries a graphic in the form of a gold library card they can put on their public-access workstations as a link to the site. You can find more information about the Library Card on their Web site.
OCLC has spent a great deal of time producing sophisticated software to run WorldCat, FirstSearch, and its other information services. A few years ago the company made the strategic decision to put its in-house searching and database-building software into products that could be marketed on their own. The result was OCLC SiteSearch, which is essentially a suite of programmer-interface toolkits that have many of the same state-of-the-art tools that OCLC itself uses to provide its customers with services such as FirstSearch and CORC. It is meant to be used by large libraries or consortia that have programming expertise available.
With a few years of SiteSearch development and marketing experience under its belt, OCLC has announced a new product based on WebZ, the searching component of SiteSearch. Called OCLC WebExpress, it’s designed as a searching interface to multiple databases, both local and remote-in computerese, a distributed gateway product. Somewhere between a turnkey product and a programmer’s toolkit (OCLC calls it a “librarian’s interface toolkit”), it’s geared to small and medium-sized libraries that do not have Java programmers available, but who do have someone on board who is computer-savvy. It provides an administrator’s interface composed of wizards that make it easy to create access to information resources, group them in a logical way for users, and link them to other resources when appropriate. OCLC plans to release the product in late April or May.
OCLC WebExpress will be priced as a subscription service that includes software, support, and user access to a database of OCLC-maintained Z39.50 configuration data for library catalogs. The annual fee will be from $750 on up, depending on library type and the number of people served. For more information visit the OCLC Web site, call WebExpress Product Manager Vicki Miller at 614-764-6039, or e-mail her at millerv@oclc.org.