New Standards Report from RAND

You might be interested in the following report on standards for the web
and Internet.  There is a discussion of Z39.50 in "Appendix C: Knowledge
Organization and Digital Libraries."

The report makes clear that a major challenge for intersystem
communication is semantic interoperability.

The report is titled:

Scaffolding the New Web: Standards and Standards Policy for the Digital
Economy, Martin Libicki, James Schneider, Dave Frelinger, Anna Slomovic,
MR-1215-OSTP, 2000 (PDF).

and available in PDF format at:

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1215/

Cheers,
Bill