This study, undertaken in 1998, attempted to bridge the gap of information and understanding about the current situation of state library agencies' use, opportunities and issues related to technical standards.

This book chapter discusses interoperability in the networked environment.

This document is part of a Government Information Quarterly Special Issue. The author serves as the editor of this issue focusing on the use of metadata as a strategy to improve access to and management of electronic government information. Contributions by writers address federal and state metadata activities and issues.

This document provides a status report on the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) covering the period of December 1, 2000 through April 30, 2001. The authors highlight activities and accomplishments to communicate to IMLS progress on their project. This period can be considered a project startup period.

This paper discusses interoperability of networked information. Interoperability is a fundamental challenge for networked information discovery and retrieval. Often treated monolithically in the literature, interoperability is multifaceted and can be analyzed into different types and levels. This paper discusses an approach to map the interoperability landscape for networked information retrieval as part of an interoperability assessment research project.

An operating assumption for the networked environment is that many different information systems need to interoperate for users to successfully discover and retrieve distributed resources. Meaningful interoperability is often elusive. In the library community, the Z39.50 standard protocol (ISO 23950/ANSI/NISO Z39.50) for information retrieval promised seamless and transparent networked access to library resources. Too often, the reality has not lived up to the promise. This paper discusses two efforts that offer solution paths to Z39.50 interoperability.

This document describes the data analysis procedures developed to create the Aggregate and Candidate Record Groups using SQL statements. This is the preliminary version of these procedures tested and validated on a sample of decomposed MARC records. (For a description of how the MARC records were decomposed see the Z-Interop document, Decomposing MARC 21 Records for Analysis. A subsequent version may be necessary as the authors move to the procedures for the entire file of decomposed records.

In this document, the authors present some aspects of data normalization of the decomposed records to improve the results of analysis. The data normalization processes use pattern-matching techniques to eliminate and/or generalize anomalous characters and terms. Since the unit of analysis in preparing the test dataset of 400,000 MARC 21 records is a "word," there was a need for data normalization to provide reliability in the subsequent analysis.

This document discusses phase 1 of interoperability testing as part of the Z-Interop project.

Report on the logic and procedures to create a test dataset of more than 400,000 (400K) MARC 21 records from the OCLC WorldCat database.

This document provides guidelines for indexing MARC 21 records to support a set of searches using Z39.50. The Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) uses these guidelines to index the 400,000 MARC 21 records that comprise the Z-Interop reference implementation of the Z39.50 server and online catalog.

This document provides an overview and the details of policies and procedures of the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (referred to as Z-Interop). Specifically, the document lays out the responsibilities and obligations of the Z-Interop testbed and the organizations that participate in interoperability testing. For purposes of this document, Z-Interop staff refers to all members of the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project. Z-Interop participant refers to an individual or organization who tests its Z39.50 client or Z39.50 server through the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed.

This document provides a status report on the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) covering the period of May 1, 2000 through March 31, 2002. Due to a family medical emergency, the Principal Investigator was not able to complete the six-month status report that was due December 1, 2001. The Principal Investigator (PI) communicated with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) staff about this situation, and had sent via email in November 2001 information about the progress of the project.

This document provides a status report on the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) covering the period of April 1, 2002 through June 30, 2002. The previous status report covered a ten-month period from May 1, 2001 through March 31, 2002. The Principal Investigator (PI) requested a no-cost extension for this project, which the Institute of Museum and Library Services approved. With the letter of approval, IMLS set a revised schedule for project status reports. Beginning July 1, 2002, status reports are due every six months. To respond to the revised schedule of status reports, this document highlights activities and accomplishments to communicate to IMLS progress on this project since the last status report.

This document discusses decomposing MARC 21 records for analysis. To prepare the test dataset of the 1% sample of MARC 21 records from the WorldCat database for use in the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed, the authors need to be able to efficiently analyze the records to determine relevant records to be returned for a set of test searches. The first step in that analysis is to determine the occurrence of test search terms in specific records. This document describes the general approach for this analysis and identifies specifications for the analysis.

This document describes the procedures that participants in the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed (Z-Interop Participant) are to use when testing Z39.50 client (Z-client) applications. The testing of a Z-Interop reference implementation Z39.50 server. Specifically, the attribute combination and other query components (e.g., Boolean operators) are reviewed, and a report of the results will be prepared for each Z-Interop participant.

This presentation discusses using Z39.50. The topics include framing the "finding it all" question, a resource discovery service project, and update on Z39.50 profiles, and the next generation of Z39.50.

Presentation for the 2002 Netspeed Annual Conference. This presentation discusses the collaborative services, standards and interoperability of libraries in the 21st century.

This paper discusses metadata utilization. This paper reports results of an analysis of a large sample of MARC 21 bibliographic records.

This document provides a status report on the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) covering the period of July 1, 2002 through December 31, 2002. The previous status report covered a three-month period from April 1, 2002 through June 30, 2002. This document highlights activities and accomplishments to communicate to IMLS progress on this project since the last status report.

This document provides a status report on the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Project (Z-Interop) covering the period of January 1, 2003 through June 30, 2003. This document highlights activities and accomplishments to communicate to IMLS progress on this project since the last status report on January 1, 2003.

This lecture script examines the nature and role of standards for the emerging 21st century library. Given the dynamic character of the networked environment, when are standards appropriate and how can they be developed in a manner consistent with the volatility of information technologies and changing library services? What are the roles and responsibilities of standards developing organizations, technology vendors, content creators, and librarians for standards? Do local practices of libraries threaten standards-based resource sharing and resource access technologies? Can local needs be balanced with broader library community responsibilities, and how do standards affect this balance? The speaker's assumption is that adherence to standards has never been more critical, yet his implementation experience with Z39.50 and MARC suggests that the commitment to national and international standards by librarians, technology vendors, and content creators are often an example of good intentions rather than actual practice. This standards disconnect threatens the emerging 21st century library's ability to deliver fundamental services in appropriate ways to their users.

This report discusses the Z39.50 interoperability testbed and serves as an interim report for the Z-Interop Project as of December 31, 2003.

Paper describing a plan of work to develop and test an alternative approach for interoperability testing. This approach builds on the conceptual and technical infrastructure developed during the Z-Interop Project.