RE: ZNG - what is the long-range objective?

Firstly the name. A number of names came up and there was a danger that
more time would be spent on the name then anything else. So in the end
we stuck with the name on the table at the time. In hindsight the name
has unfortunate (and unintended) implications.

Secondly OpenURL - the impression is the OpenURL is really a location
service rather than a search/retrieve service - i.e. OpenURL is for the
task that given certain information about an item (which should be
enough to uniquely identify that item), locate instances of that item.
Z39.50/ZNG is for searching for items matching a much broader criteria.

As such OpenURL has a far more restricted set of search points (aimed at
search points which could be used for identifying an item but not
necessary the search points users would use, e.g. ISBN/ISSN/SICI etc)
and a restricted query language.

These are complementary technologies rather than alternatives: A OpenURL
server could use ZNG/Z39.50 to talk to some of the targets when locating
an item. Alternatively, a Z39.50 client could use OpenURL to locate an
item having retrieved details from a Z39.50 target.

A similar consideration was given in the NCIP protocol for the item
locate function, as I recall.

Matthew J. Dovey
Oxford University Libraries Services


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Leif Andresen [mailto:LEA@bs.dk]
> Sent: 26 September 2001 13:20
> To: 'www-zig@w3.org'
> Subject: ZNG - what is the long-range objective?
> 
> To ZIG-list
> 
> It is unclear to me what is the long-range objective of the actual
> ZNG-proposal.
> 
> I can see two very different:
> 
> A) A light weight protocol for search-and-retrieval for end-users in
> databases with no overlap to the Z39.50 system-to-system protocol.
> 
> B) A protocol with focus on search-and-retrieval for end-user, but
with
> extensions to carry library-to-library data exchange.
> 
> The name ZNG - Z39.50 next generation - says B, men the text in the
> proposal
> say A.
> 
> If A - why not co-operation with the OpenURL project? Some of the
> practical
> use of OpenURL are search-and-retrieval and not only linking.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Leif Andresen
> Danish National Library Authority
> 
> PS. I send this til ZIG-list 31-7-2001 where nobody reacted - may be
the
> reason was holidays.

Received on Friday, 28 September 2001 08:31:55 UTC