The Bath Profile and The Journey To Interoperability

1. The Bath ProfileandThe Journey To Interoperability Carrol D Lunau Bath Profile Maintenance Agency July 7, 2003 carrol.lunau@nlc-bnc.ca

2. Z39.50 Searching: what are the difficulties? • Large result sets • Records that don’t obviously meet the search criteria • Miss records that are in the database • Difficulties configuring clients for each server

3. Why is a profile needed? • Z39.50 implementation options • Different implementer interpretations of the standard Result = User frustration

4. What is a Profile? • Represents community consensus on requirements • Identifies Z39.50 specifications to support those requirements • Improves search & retrieval results • Aids in purchasing decisions • Provides specifications for vendors to build Z39.50 products • Makes client configuration easier

5. Role of the Bath Profile • Provides a core specification for global interoperability of Z39.50 servers • National/regional profiles can build on Bath for local requirements • Objective to increase predictability & precision in searching library catalogues when desired by the searcher

6. Development of the Bath Profile • Lengthy process to reach international consensus • August 1999 first meeting • March 2000 Release 1.0 • June 2000 Release 1.1 (Internationally Registered Profile) • March 2003 Release 2.0 • Has been re-submitted to ISO

7. Features of the Bath Profile • Groups related functions & requirements into ‘functional areas’ • Provides 3 levels of conformance • Modular, can implement all or only specific functions • Must use all 6 use attributes for searches

8. Release 1.1 • Three functional areas • A: Basic bibliographic search & retrieval • 2 levels of conformance, 19 searches & 6 scans • B: Bibliographic holdings search & retrieval • Not really defined • C: Cross-domain search & retrieval • 2 levels of conformance, 13 searches

9. Release 2.0 • Four functional areas • A: Bibliographic search & retrieval • 3 levels of conformance, 29 searches, 3 scans • B: Bibliographic holdings retrieval & search • 2 levels of conformance, 3 ESNs for retrieval • C: Cross-domain search & retrieval • 2 levels of conformance, 13 searches • D: Authority record search & retrieval in online library catalogues • 2 levels of conformance, 54 searches, 6 scans

10. Changes: Level 0 Bibliographic Search & Retrieval • Author search – precision match for established name heading • Deleted • Author search – keyword • Moved to level 0 from level 1

11. Changes: Level 1 Bibliographic Search & Retrieval • Author searching • Keyword moved to level 0 • Precision match for established name heading with right truncation deleted • New search for first words in field • New search for first characters in field • SCAN • Title, Subject and Any keyword scans deleted

12. Changes: Functional Area A syntax specifications • Requirement for UNIMARC dropped but encouraged • Z-client required to support MARC21 & SUTRS • Z-server required to support MARC21

13. Other changes • Decided not to reference future work • Deleted Functional Area B Level 2 • Deleted Appendix A: Use of new attribute sets in expressing selected searches • Documents moved to Z39.50 Maintenance Agency • Appendix B: Diagnostics • Appendix E: Creating a search from Scan results • Functional Area C: created ESN for the dtd for Dublin Core Simple • GRS-1 replaced by XML in Functional Area B

14. Clarifications • Use of Term and DisplayTerm • Z-clients must support Term and DisplayTerm and display DisplayTerm if sent. If DisplayTerm is not sent, Term must be displayed • How terms field & subfield are used • Character sets • If a character set is not negotiated the server should assume that the character set is ISO Latin-1 • Explanation of how conformant targets should handle requests from non-conformant clients

15. New: Level 2 bibliographic search & retrieval • 10 searches • Key title search • keyword • keyword with right truncation • exact match • first words in field • first characters in field • Format/Type of material search • keyword • phrase • Language search – keyword • Date of publication range search • Possessing institution search

16. New: Bibliographic holdings retrieval & search • Based on work by NISO and DanZIG • Can conform to level 1 without conforming to level 0 • Level 1 conformance requires • XML record syntax • Holdings schema • Support of ESN B-1 and ESN B-2 or ESN C-2 • Version 3 Z39.50

17. New: Bibliographic holdings retrieval & search • 3 Element Set Names with XML schema definitions • B-1: BathHoldingsLocationsOnly • Intended for centralized union catalogues that only keep title level holdings • Can include a symbol and/or name • B-2: BathHoldingsSummaryInfo • Intended for union catalogues and catalogues that only include summary information for serials & multi-part titles • C-2: BathHoldingsCopyInfo • Intended for virtual union catalogues & individual catalogues with copy level information – can include circulation information

18. New: Authority record search & retrieval • Searches in indexes containing access points or cross references • Specifications virtually identical to bib search but different attributes • Level 1 • 14 searches, 3 scans • Level 2 • 39 searches, 3 scans • Parallels bibliographic search and cross-domain search specifications

19. Related profiles • North America • Z39.89 – 200x The U.S. National Z39.50 Profile for Library Applications • Z Texas Profile Release 2.0 • Europe • CENL • ONE-2 Profile v.2 rev.5

20. Z39.89 – 200x - highlights • Has been approved & is being prepared for publication • Only Bibliographic search & retrieval at this time but working on holdings as well • Level 0 searches the same • Level 1 includes the 15 Bath searches & adds 4 others • 3 new: ISBN, ISSN & remote system number • One, language, is Bath level 2

21. Z39.89 – 200x - highlights • Level 1 scan – identical • Level 2 • Includes 7 of the 10 Bath searches • Language is level 2 Bath & level 1 in Z39.89 • Different searches for format & type of material • Z39.89 defines 2 keyword searches & provides a list of codes to use to identify the format • Bath combines format & type of material in one search with both keyword & phrase searches & doesn’t specify codes • 40 additional searches, including controlled vocabulary pattern searches • Includes an appendix giving examples of profile-defined searches

22. Z Texas • Have adopted Bath version 1.1 • Have added detailed indexing guidelines • Are developing specifications for search & retrieval from abstracting & indexing systems

23. CENL • Propose to discontinue development of CENL profile • Develop European annex • Syntax: MARC21 & UNIMARC • Z39.50 version 3 to support search terms from different attribute sets

24. Bath Profile Implementation • Z39.50 interoperability testbed • Test scripts • Have tested clients • Fretwell-Downing ZPORTAL • Have tested integrated library systems including • Dynix • OCLC • Inquirion, TeraText • III • TLC/CARL • Middlesex University

25. Interoperability – are we there yet? • No

26. What do we still need? • Implementation of the profile • Address indexing issues • Do the necessary indexes exist? • Is the attribute to MARC tag mapping the same? • Semantic issues with the data • Initial articles • Stop-word lists • Language & character set negotiation

27. Future of the Bath Profile • Short term • ISO IRP • Modifications based on implementation • Medium term • Holdings searching • New attribute architecture • Version 3 Z39.50 • Specifications for search & retrieval of A & I systems • Long term • Metasearching & Z39.50 • Will Z39.89 make Bath redundant?

28. Conclusions • Bath release 2.0 has simplified some specifications from release 1.1 and added significant functionality • Progress is slower than we hoped • The need for interoperability is not going to go away - Just do it!