Question:
What is the intent of Explain in providing information about term lists? Is it primarily oriented towards scanable lists (for use by the Z39.50 Scan service) or is intended to provide information about access points for searching? For the latter purpose, isn't "term list" misleading, and wouldn't "search access point" be better?
Response:
The Z39.50 term list abstraction was invented during development of the Scan service, before it was integrated into Explain. The term "term list" was adopted because it was felt to be a more neutral term than "index".Later, Explain developed the categories TermListInfo and TermListDetails, intended to allow a client to discover scanable term lists as well as search access points that may not necessarily correspond to scanable term lists.
For the latter purpose, "term list" is indeed misleading, and the term "search access point" would be better, where the boolean identifier 'scanable' in TermListInfo would have semantics " 'true' means this access point corresponds to a scanable term list".
Status: Approved (6/98)
Library of Congress