The AT&T library organization has developed an interest in Z39.50 for a number of diverse reasons. It is hoped that eventually Z39.50 will help with or solve several classes of problems, ranging from behind the scenes issues resulting from distributed computing architectures to diversity of user interfaces. In addition to helping with known problems, we hope that Z39.50 will give us a flexibility required for a constantly evolving library organization in an international corporate environment.
For Z39.50 to meet our needs the main requirement is that the protocol itself incorporate all the functionality of our existing information retrieval environment. The 1992 (version 2) version of the standard was a major start, but the newer version (1995 version 3) comes much closer to incorporating existing functionality.
The next major requirement is proven interoperability and transparency of database provider to our users. Issues of indexing style, default operations and ways to override defaults, database coverage and loading characteristics become even more apparent in Z39.50 than in the traditional online world. Our end users, like users everywhere, are expecting interfaces integrated into their regular computing environment. A solution to this problem is a well accepted search and retrieval protocol. Z39.50 is well positioned to become this protocol, and in this belief we have focused our attention on developing a high-quality server for our internal resources.