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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear Mr. Heagy, We sympathize with your disappointment over the current Z39.50 limitations of Voyager. We ourselves are anxious to see these capabilities improved as soon as possible, and the vendor, Endeavor Information Systems, is very interested in working with us to address these issues. As yet, however, there is no specific timetable for either the access to authority records or the complete treatment of diacritics and special characters. We have tried to lessen the immediate impact of Voyager's Z39.50 shortcomings by continuing to offer Z39.50 access to MUMS for the next few months. RLIN and OCLC also remain sources of access to full MARC authority records, including Z39.50 access. While our previous system MUMS had many excellent features that had been developed over several decades, it was not well integrated with our other systems that supported circulation and acquisitions. Moving to a single library system that integrated all components was long overdue. The Library feels that it made the best possible choice of commercially available integrated library systems out of those companies that responded to the Library's Request for Proposals. Z39.50 is just one capability out of nearly nine hundred that the Library specified. Although the Voyager system does not support every capability that we would eventually like to see, it does offer many excellent features that were not available in MUMS or its other systems. We ask for your patience and that of other Library users as we make this very necessary transition to a system that will support us well into the future. Beth Dulabahn ILS Implementation Coordinator ILS Program Office Library of Congress >>> Phil Heagy <[log in to unmask]> 09/15 3:58 PM >>> ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Searching the LC catalogs using their new LC Z39.50 gateway, "Voyager", I noticed two disappointing features, and I'll quote from LC's "limitations" statement: 1) "Diacritics and many special characters are not encoded correctly". 2) "It is not possible to search the LC authority files". Am I missing something here, or have they taken two giant steps backward for mankind (taking our tax money with them) -- the gateway previously supported (MUMS, which apparently will disappear in December), supported both these features. If I haven't somehow missed discussion on this previously, is this something the Cataloging Advisory Committee of ARLIS would be interested in pursuing? Phil Heagy Menil Collection Library 1511 Branard St. Houston, TX 77006 PH: (713) 525-9426 FAX: (713) 525-9444 e-mail: [log in to unmask]