1. Archibald Warnock A/WWW Enterprises warnock@clark.net
Z39.50 Implementations
Archibald Warnock
A/WWW Enterprises

2. Introduction to Z39.50 Developed for search and retrieval
Networked, client/server environment
Tested by working information scientists (Z39.50 Implementor’s Group)
Commerical & public domain support (Isite from CNIDR)

3. Attribute Sets Attributes define how the query is specified
Use: field names
Relation: comparisons
Position: location in field
Structure: word/phrase/key/etc
Truncation: left/right/none/etc
Completeness: subfield/field

4. Attributes & Element Sets
Supported Attribute Sets
BIB-1  GILS  GEO
STAS
Element Sets define retrievable sets of use attributes
Brief record
Full record
Summary record (GEO)

5. Record Syntaxes
Z39.50 allows specification of a “Preferred Record Syntax” for results
SUTRS (unstructured text)
HTML
USMARC
GRS-1 (tagged, generalized syntax)

6. Profiles - GEO and Otherwise
Profiles define allowed attributes and element sets
Usually domain specific - ATS-1, GILS, WAIS, GEO, Digital Collections, Museum Collections
Supported by external agreement between client & server (currently)
i.e., a GEO client talks to a GEO server

7. Coming Attractions Isite support Search Engine (Isearch)
Search in numeric fields
Z39.50 Implementation (ZDist)
Support for GEO attributes & element sets
GRS-1 record syntax
Support for additional (non-Isearch) search engines