1 Building our DNER the Z way Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UK Office for Library & Information Networking (UKOLN) UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

2 Building the DNER Distributed National Electronic Resource Policy aspiration of the Joint Information Systems Committee Intended to provide greater access to JISC’s Current Content Collection –RDN –AHDS –MIMAS/ EDINA/ Data Archive –EDUSERVE –COPAC –eLib projects etc. See

3 Building the DNER Construction of various Portals to facilitate user–centric access ‘JISC Portal’ ? Data Centre Portals (EDINA, MIMAS…) Subject Portals (the RDN, etc.) Data Type Portals (images, movies, sound…) Institutional Portals (a Hybrid Library?) Personal Portals (Paul’s web!) See

4 Building the DNER But how can we link these services together? See At the moment, Z39.50 is seen as the only feasible mechanism across the range of services JISC wish to offer.

5 What is Z39.50? North American Standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.50–1995 [version 3]) International Standard (ISO 23950) Originally library–centric Permits remote searching of databases Access via Z client or over web Relies upon ‘Profiles’ CIMI profile for cultural heritage GEO profile for Geospatial data. See

6 What’s wrong with Z39.50? Profiles for each discipline Defeats interoperability? Vendor interpretation of the standard Bib–1 bloat Largely invisible to the user Seen as complicated, expensive and old–fashioned Surely no match for XML/RDF/ whatever. See

7 The Bath Profile System vendors implement areas of the Z39.50 standard differently Regional, National, and disciplinary Profiles have appeared over previous years, many of which have basic functions in common Users wish to search across national/regional boundaries, and between vendors. See activities/z3950/int_profile/bath/

8 Learning from the past The Bath Profile is heavily influenced by ATS–1 CENL DanZIG MODELS ONE Z Texas vCUC. See activities/z3950/int_profile/bath/

9 Learning from the past See activities/z3950/int_profile/bath/

10 Doing the work ZIP–PIZ–L mailing list, hosted by National Library of Canada Meeting face–to–face JISC supported a face–to–face meeting in Bath over the summer A draft was widely circulated for comment Concertation day on Friday. See activities/events/bath–profile–concertation/

11 What we proposed Minimisation of ‘defaults’ Where possible, every attribute is defined in the Profile (Use, Relation, Position, Structure, Truncation, Completeness) Three Functional Areas Basic Bibliographic Search & Retrieval Bibliographic Holdings Search & Retrieval Cross–Domain Search & Retrieval Three or more Levels of Conformance in each Area. See activities/z3950/int_profile/bath/

12 What we proposed SUTRS and one of UNIMARC or MARC21 for Bibliographic Search results Or all three at Level 1? SUTRS and Dublin Core (in XML) for Cross–Domain results Other record syntaxes also permitted, but conformant tools must support at least these. See activities/z3950/int_profile/bath/

13 Finishing it off… Consolidate comments, and revise where necessary Direct approaches to international vendors User testing in Canada and Texas ZIG meeting in Texas, January 2000 ISO Internationally Recognised Profile status during 2000 Addition of Functional Areas and Levels of Conformance as required. See texas/texas.html

14 Building the DNER Remaining challenges Authentication hell –Move from endless authentication to single authentication Alignment of different data types –Ordnance Survey maps at Edinburgh –Satellite imagery in Manchester –Electronic journal articles in many formats, etc. –Census data at the Data Archive –Survey data in Manchester –Chemical structures in Manchester Collection Level Description.