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 is the project website for the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Standards Committee AV on developing a U.S. national Z39.50 profile for library applications. It contains project documentation, committee member information, and additional resources.

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 is the project website for the Needs Assessment Study of Texas Academic, Public, and School Libraries, funded by a grant from the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board. It contains information on project documentation and their Final Report.

This is the project website for the research study Illinois Library Resources and Automation in the Networked Environment. It contains project documentation and resources resulting from the study.

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 is the project website for the research study Illinois Library Resources and Automation in the Networked Environment. It contains project documentation and resources resulting from the study.

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 outlines the project plan for the Needs Assessment Study of Texas Academic, Public, and School Libraries.

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 study identifies strategies for enhancing access to Illinois libraries' holdings, where the strategies ensure the best stewardship possible for state and federal grant dollars for library automation and resources.

This document is the final report with the summary of the findings, conclusions, and recommendations for consideration by the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board (TIFB) Library Working Group as part of the Needs Assessment Study of Texas Academic, Public and School Libraries. The report is the work of the Needs Assessment Study Team, Texas Center for Digital Knowledge at the University of North Texas. The study was conducted during the period of February through September 15, 2002. Funding for the study was provided by Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board

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.