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 InSite
 The Monthly Newsletter for Open SiteSearch Users
September 1999, vol.2 no.5

  New
 
  OCLC SITESEARCH 4.1 TO BE RELEASED SEPT. 20

DUBLIN, OH - OCLC is pleased to announce that Open SiteSearch 4.1 is on schedule and will be released September 20th for the Unix and NT operating systems. Updates to the documentation will be released on September 20th as well. Training on SiteSearch 4.1 begins this week, August 23rd.

If you would like information on upcoming training dates and seat availability starting with the session offered in September, please contact Becky Hawk, Product Support Coordinator, at or 1-.

If you need additional information about the SiteSearch 4.1 software, please contact Kara Byerly, Manager of User Services, at or extension 6402.

 

OCLC's Z39.50 Harvest
"Farmer" John Trares, SiteSearch Product Support Specialist


Also in this issue

News & Notes
4.1 Training
SiteSearch Support Reorg
Help Zone Update

Tips & Techs
Log Analyzers more than bean counters
Manager's Notebook
Custom Services: Creative Solutions

Z39.50 server list
Bold = No test server available

Ameritech
   Dynix
   Horizon
   NOTIS
Ex Libris
Gaylord
IAC
IBM
AutoGraphics III
Best-Seller IndexList
CARL Ovid
Dialog SydneyPLUS 
DRA
   Classic
   Inlex
   MultiLIS
SilverPlatter
SIRS
Sirsi
TLC
EBSCO VTLS
Endeavor Winnebago
Three ways you can help:
  •  Let us know which vendors you currently use
  •  Tell us which vendors we should add to the list for testing
  •  Let us conduct tests if you have a server from a vendor who hasn't responded to us

Late summer recedes into autumn -- harvesting time for many crops here in the midwest. While family farms harvest the last of the corn and soybeans, OCLC has been hard at work, too, testing Z39.50 servers.

New vendors have entered the field, or announced their intentions and other vendors have upgraded functionality/Z-compliance. OCLC is constantly looking to stay current with these developments and make configuration files available for our users.

The vendors we approached for testing are listed at the right. In some cases, the z-servers were still under development and not yet available for testing. In other cases, vendors did not respond to OCLC's requests for connection information. In most cases we were able to size up the servers. For suggestions on how you can help with the project, see the bottom of the sidebar.

OCLC conducted all of its testing with zclient, the simple command driven Z39.50 client bundled with the Open SiteSearch software. We tested for Z39.50 attributes and behaviors of vendor servers, how well they met or exceeded vendor claims and how well they fulfilled basic and advanced searching requirements.

    Services

  •  Protocol version
  •  Browse
  •  Sort
    Options

  •  Piggybacked presents
  •  Result set naming
  •  Element set naming
  •  Reference ids
  •  Trigger-resource-control
  •  Result-set-delete facility
    Attributes

  •  Use
  •  Relation
  •  Position
  •  Structure
  •  Truncation
  •  Completeness
    Other

  •  Query types supported
  •  Types of record syntax
  •  Level of holdings
  •  Authorization

To test for searching requirements, OCLC borrowed from the searching profile written by TZIG -- the Texas Z39.50 Implementors Group. These requirements set the criteria for handling common first level searching -- that patrons would commonly use -- and second level searching -- that catalogers would commonly use. The original paper is available here.

First level searching supports:

  •  Author searches for expressing queries that include an established name heading, as well as queries that include names not under any authority control
  •  Keyword and phrase title searches
  •  Keyword and phrase subject heading searches
  •  Keyword searches against common access points
  •  Boolean AND, OR, NOT
  •  Right truncation of search terms

Second level searching supports:

  •  Corporate and conference name searches
  •  Standard number searching
  •  Call number searching
  •  Query restrictors date, format, language and audience
  •  Proximity searching

The form developed for recorded results is available here. Use it as you like. We welcome any comments.

With SiteSearch 4.1, we are adding the ability to configure additional Z39.50 attributes on a per database, per index basis. This additional functionality will aid in searching problems reported to the Product Support by SiteSearch users. Based on our tests, the following servers will benefit notably with these changes:

NOTE: Since many servers still do not support additional Z39.50 attributes, including these fields in the corresponding configuration files may adversely affect searching (i.e., your results may vary).

Ameritech Dynix
PROBLEM: Author searches require the author's complete name, including year of birth and, if applicable, year of death.
4.1 FIX: Use truncation attribute 1, right truncation.

III
PROBLEM: Single keyword searches default to first in field.
4.1 FIX: Use position attribute 3, any position in field.

Sirsi
PROBLEM: Phrase searches do not default to first in position.
4.1 FIX: Use position attribute 1, first in field. However, tests of Sirsi's Z39.50 server show that is does not respond correctly to this specification.

 


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