Interim Report for the Z-Interop Project The Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed Page: 1
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Interim Report for the Z-Interop Project:
The Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed
1. Introduction
The U.S. Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded a National Leadership Grant in 2000
to support the research and demonstration project, Realizing the Vision of Networked Access to Library
Resources: An Applied Research and Demonstration Project to Establish and Operate a Z39. 50
Interoperability Testbed. The goal of the project was to improve Z39.50 semantic interoperability among
libraries for information access and resource sharing. The Z-Interop Project, as it became known, was the
first systematic attempt to establish a reliable interoperability testbed for assessing Z39.50 clients and
servers. From December 1, 2000 through September 30, 2003, the Principal Investigator and staff
working on the Z-Interop Project carried out a wide range of anticipated and unanticipated activities to
address the challenges in this ground-breaking endeavor. This document serves as an interim report for
the Z-Interop Project.
2. The Problem Addressed by the Z-Interop Project
To better serve their users' needs, libraries have been purchasing and implementing sophisticated
integrated information systems to provide increased access to global information resources. A key
technology to improve integrated access to distributed resources is the national and international
information retrieval protocol, ANSI/NISO Z39.50/ISO 23950, Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application
Service Definition and Protocol Specification (National Information Standards Organizations, 1995).
The ANSI/NISO Z39.50 information retrieval protocol allows two computer systems to communicate via a
network connection to support search and retrieval transactions.
Although Z39.50 was approved in 1988 as an American National Standard, serious implementation of the
protocol did not occur until a revised standard was approved in 1995. The vision for Z39.50 was to enable
interoperability, where interoperability refers to the ability of different types of computers, networks,
operating systems, and applications to exchange information, without prior communication, in a useful
and meaningful manner. The standard was developed under the auspices of the National Information
Standards Organization (NISO), and was intended to be used for searching and retrieving bibliographic
records held in library catalogs.
The 1995 revision of the protocol generalized the functionality provided, and since then, Z39.50 has been
implemented in systems handling a broader range of information types beyond library catalog
bibliographic records. (For a history of the development and evolution of Z39.50, see Moen, 1998b.) The
1995 standard included many more options and choices when implementing the protocol, and this
resulted too often in Z39.50 clients and Z39.50 servers not achieving acceptable levels of interoperability.
In the late 1990s, a number of studies evaluating Z39.50 interoperability and effectiveness indicated
librarians' concern about the reliability of Z39.50 to provide effective search and retrieval across library
catalogs. Evaluation studies of Z39.50 projects in Iowa, Canada, and the Committee on Institutional
Cooperation (see Blue Angel Technologies, 1998; Lunau, 1998; and Hinnebusch, 1998) provided
empirical evidence that interoperability was a critical issue facing information systems implementing
Z39.50 access to library resources. Improvements in interoperability between systems would substantially
increase users'-especially librarians and other information professionals-confidence that Z39.50
products provide reliable results when searching across multiple resources.
The Z39.50 standard specifies is a computer-to-computer protocol for information retrieval. Based on a
client/server architecture, it defines a way for information stored in large databases (e.g., library catalogs,
and abstracting and indexing services records) to be searched and retrieved through a standardized
interface. The Z39.50 standard masks the differences between information retrieval systems, since usersMoenn
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Moen, William E. Interim Report for the Z-Interop Project The Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed, report, December 31, 2003; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc111001/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT College of Information.