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This page has been deprecated and been replaced by Directory of Z39.50 Targets in Australia pending the development of a new service. Please update your bookmarks.

Directory of Z39.50 Targets in Australia

This service allows Australian organisations with Z39.50 target services to register these services, describe connection parameters and document supported search attributes. The information entered here is freely available to anyone. Other sites can use the information contained in this directory to configure Z39.50 clients.

The entry for the National Library of Australia can be used as an example; retrieve it by entering ANL into the National Union Catalogue (NUC) symbol box in the left-frame of this screen, and selecting 'list sites'.

An example of a project which uses this Z39.50 target information is ZedWeb, the Web to Z39.50 Gateway Service funded under the National Priority (Reserve) fund of the Australian Vice Chancellors' Committee and developed jointly by the Distributed Systems Technology Centre, the National Library of Australia and the University of Queensland Library. This project provides a single Web interface to access multiple Z39.50 servers, arranged as "clumps". One of the outputs of the project is a draft profile specifying the technical requirements for operating effectively as a ZedWeb target. It is planned to align this profile with international profiling work to ensure a coherent development path for library system vendors.

See also:

About the Directory of Z39.50 Targets in Australia

The 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. Consequently a Directory of Z39.50 Targets in Australia forms part of the Gateway.

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 ZedWeb, the Web to Z39.50 Gateway Service project. 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.

Information input into the Directory will be immediately and freely available to all who use the Directory, with the details of each library's server being presented as a web page. Any changes to your information after this date can be made online. It is planned that this Directory will be a single source of information on the capabilities and characteristics of Z39.50 servers throughout Australia, and therefore an invaluable resource.

Please direct comments or queries about the Directory of Z39.50 Targets in Australia to ALG Administration.

Links to more information about Z39.50

Last modified: June 19 2009.


Last updated 26 May 2000