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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:  <a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind9909%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7BIT%26P%3D237149%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>

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Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 10:41:40 -0400
From: "Elizabeth S Dulabahn" <<a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind9909%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7BIT%26P%3D237149%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>>
To: <a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind9909%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7BIT%26P%3D237149%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>, <a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind9909%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7BIT%26P%3D237149%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>
Subject: Re: Library of Congress Z39.50 gateway
Mime-Version: 1.0
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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

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From: "Kathryn Harnish" <<a href="/scripts/wa.exe?LOGON=A3%3Dind9909%26L%3DARLIS-L%26E%3D7BIT%26P%3D237149%26B%3D--%26T%3Dtext%252FplainTEXT%252FPLAIN%3B%2520charset%3DUS-ASCII%26pending%3D" target="_parent" >[log in to unmask]</a>>
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Subject: LC Z39.50 Gateway Issues
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 17:40:13 -0500
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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