Interoperability between metadata formats Mapping IAFA templates to Z39.50 Bib-1 Michael Day UKOLN: The UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, United Kingdom http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ m.day@ukoln.ac.uk August 1996

Mapping IAFA Templates to the Bib-1 Use Attribute Set from Z39.50-1995

Z39.50 is a protocol intended to facilitate the retrieval of information in a distributed network environment. It is an ANSI/NISO standard, paralleled by ISO 10162/10163, the Search and Retrieve (SR) Service Definition and Protocol Definition. Although the first version of the Z39.50 protocol appeared in 1988, it is now in Version 3, ANSI/NISO Z39.50-1995, accepted by ANSI in July 1995. The protocol enables a Z39.50 compatible client system (the origin) to search and retrieve information from a Z39.50 compatible server (the target) and to display the information in a format controlled by the origin. In practical terms, Joy and Murray (1995, p. 41) comment that Z39.50 is "a standard, enabling a single client to retrieve information from databases of different types in consistent manner". Hinnebusch (1995, pp. 118-119) notes that flat databases typical of those which contain bibliographic or textual data are easily handled by Z39.50 "because its model is specifically geared to this pervasive structure".

The following table summarises where IAFA Templates would map onto the Bib-1 Attribute Set. The relevant USMARC fields are added for comparison.

Comments

There are no Bib-1 parallels for the IAFA Templates attributes "Template type, "Version", "Format" and "Size". It could be argued that these would be unlikely search-terms in any case, but it limits the search potential of IAFA Templates through Z39.50. These non-searchable terms, however, could be retrieved as part of the record. However the format of the name is problematic. IAFA Templates, even though they recommend using a format based on BibTex, are likely to get names - both corporate and personal - in different formats. IAFA Template "Author-(USER)" names will therefore not always conform to the models described in AACR2 Rules 22.4 and 24.1. However, use of Bib-1 1003 could help overcome the problem that IAFA templates do not distinguish between personal names, corporate names or conference names - as required by AACR2 and USMARC. 1003 Author-name is defined as "a personal or corporate author, or a conference or meeting name (No subject name headings are included)" (Z39.50-1995, 1995).

References

• Hinnebusch, M., 1995, Z39.50 information retrieval. In: Hinnebusch, M. and Michael, J.J., From A to Z39.50: a networking primer. Westport, Conn.: Mecklermedia, pp. 118-155.
• Joy, F. and Murray, R., 1995, The World-Wide Web and Z39.50: which way for libraries? VINE, No. 99, pp. 38-43, June.
• Z39.50-1995, 1995, Attribute set Bib-1 (Z39.50-1995: semanics). Final draft, September.
  ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/z3950/defs/bib1.txt
  ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/doc/library/z3950/bib1/bib1sem.txt

Acknowledgements

UKOLN is funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre, the Joint Information Services Committee of the UK Higher Education Funding councils, as well as by project funding from JISC's eLib Programme and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath, where it is based.

This work was carried out for the Resource Organisation And Discovery in Subject-based services (ROADS) project funded by the Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme. More information on ROADS can be found on the project's Web pages: <URL:http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/roads/>

Maintained by: Michael Day of UKOLN The UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath.
Document created: 6-Aug-1996
Last updated: 12-Aug-1998

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