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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Below are two responses I received to the above list query. 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] ------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 10:41:40 -0400 From: "Elizabeth S Dulabahn" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Library of Congress Z39.50 gateway Mime-Version: 1.0 Status: 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 ------------------------ From: "Kathryn Harnish" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Subject: LC Z39.50 Gateway Issues Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 17:40:13 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.3155.0 Status: Phil: Your recent posting on the ARLIS-L list was brought to my attention by several people, and I wanted to make sure that I provided some clarification on the functionality provided by the Voyager ILS product. 1) Voyager supports the full ALA character set in its staff modules and Windows OPAC. The Web typically supports the Latin 1 character set. Since the Library of Congress offers its Z39.50 gateway via the Web, the diacritic characters included in the ALA character set but not included in the Latin 1 character set are mapped to their nearest Latin 1 equivalents for display. The overlap between the two character sets is significant, and only a few ALA characters don't display as expected in the Web product. 2) Authority records are fully integrated into Voyager's OPAC displays (ASCII, Windows, and Web); they are also fully searchable via the search functions in the staff modules. In most cases, libraries want their patrons to see authority information as integrated references, not as full MARC authority records; Voyager's handling of authority records and references in this context is quite robust. LC is an anomaly in that it serves a patron base comprised (in part) of librarians who want to see the MARC authority records through the OPAC. In addition, the Z39.50 Bib-1 protocol does not provide for authority record searching. LC was aware of this issue from the outset of its ILS project, and the staff there is currently working with Endeavor to determine the requirements for the addition of authority search capabilities to the OPAC. Endeavor understands the needs of libraries that rely on the services of LC, and our aim is to help the Library of Congress provide the services that its consitutents have grown accustomed to using. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any additional questions about this....and please feel free to share this information with your colleagues on ARLIS-L. Cheers, Kathryn Kathryn B. Harnish Voyager Product Manager Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. 2200 E. Devon, Ste. 382 Des Plaines, IL 60018 Voice: 800/762-6300, ext. 2664 Fax: 847/296-5636