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Z39.50 targets in AustraliaThe Australian Libraries Gateway (ALG) aims to provide access to library catalogues, as well as websites and other information about libraries. Access to library catalogues is also being improved through the Z39.50 standard search protocol. Z39.50 is an international information retrieval standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.50 or ISO 23950 "Information Retrieval: Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification") that specifies a set of rules and procedures to enable communication between computer systems, including those that operate on different hardware and use different software. Z39.50 can facilitate a wide range of library functions that require database searching, including cataloguing, interlibrary loan and reference. It can be used with bibliographic databases as well as with other types of databases such as those containing images and the full-text of documents. The standard was developed to overcome problems associated with multiple database searching resulting from different menus, command languages and search procedures. The Z39.50 standard can be implemented so library patrons can use the familiar interface of their local system to search both the local library catalogue and any remote database systems that support the standard. In this way, users need to master only one search interface. Another feature of Z39.50 is that it can allow the simultaneous searching of multiple databases. A related project that will in the future make use of the information collected by this survey is The ZedWeb Project: Web to Z39.50 Gateway Service. This project aims to develop a service that integrates Australian Z39.50 servers and provides a single web-interface to access the information contained in the underlying databases. While not supporting immediate access to actual resources (eg books, journals), ZedWeb will provide access to bibliographic information about those resources such as is contained in library catalogues and citation indexes.
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