FW: Sebastian's Euro 2 cents worth of ZNG dicussion:

Sebastian wrote: 
.... What libraries desperately *do* need is ... someone to take the lead in
proposing a 
standard mechanism for handling loan requests that can be used together with
Z39.50. ...

From my viewpoint, that is what the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG)
has been doing for the past 5 years - and there are several library
applications now available that have successfully melded the implementation
of the IPIG profile for handling the loan of material along with Z39.50
functionality for resource discovery.  IPIG has always been open to Danish
and other European participation in this work.    

Sebastian also wrote: 
...They [i.e., libraries]  need clean-cut profiles to take the ambiguity out
of Bib-1. ...
Sebastian, I agree that profiling work is essential to take the ambiguity
out of using bibliographic attribute sets.  But I'd like some thought given
to the use of the newly defined  bibliographic attribute sets (Bib-2 and
MARC)  and searching power offered through their integration with the
Utiliity and Cross-Domain attribute sets defined within the new "Attribute
Architecture - rather than sticking with Bib-1.   One of the most
interesting aspects of the Bib-2 set is that, for the most part, Bib-2
simply uses Cross-Domain access point attributes modified by specific
library-related content authorities and fucntional and semantic qualifiers. 

I cannot argue with Mike about the complexity of "Bib-2" as conceptually
defined in the Bib-2 document.  But, during the time I've spent refining
these specs over the  past year, I worked on the assumption that most of the
details would be profiled out for general library applications.  

[For instance:  it was an interesting intellectual exercise for me to figure
out where in a MARC-based bibliographic record  "geographic referents"
occur.  But I expect that it will be a rare library catalogue that will
actually  use those fields and index the information to allow for retrieval.
But it's defined for the use of those library applications that can support
it.]  

I can see that the ability to combine this set with other modules of the new
Attribute Architecture could be of great value.  It will only gain the full
potential of its power when all the pieces are in place and working (one
reason that I was willing to devote so much work to Bib-2 within the past
year - so that piece would be there, just in case.)

Since I've scheduled the meeting on Bib-2 to run concurrently with the
tutorials on Tuesday afternoon, I can't expect that either of you, Sebastian
and Mike, will be free to attend that review session- but hopefully we can
address your concerns during the briefing on this work during the actual ZIG
meeting. 

Barb 
______________________
Barbara Shuh
Library Network Specialist
National Library of Canada
Phone:  (819) 994-6969  Fax:  (819) 994-6835
E-mail:  barbara.shuh@nlc-bnc.ca

Received on Thursday, 27 September 2001 11:29:51 UTC