There are two new standards in progress that if adopted should start
solving some problems (sorry not unparseable data though :)).
The OpenURL Request Transfer Message is a community profile designed to
carry a request from a discovery environment to a delivery environment.
It covers requests for both physical and digital materials. Information
about the wanted item (referent) can include holdings and for this it
uses the new ISO 20775 schema for holdings, currently in draft
international standard vote. As well as sending information about the
wanted item (referent) it is capable of sending whatever is known about
the requester and service. Information is available at:
http://www.openurl.info/registry
The ISO holdings schema has grown out of Z39.50 holdings and OPAC
schemas but remodelled to focus on responding to queries with dynamic
and static data. Dynamic data includes availability and usage counts.
It has 2 responses - simple (when the holdings are regarded as
interchangeable in the context of the query then a summary can be
given)and structured - where the server is not sure that the holdings
are interchangeable so sends back a structure, from which a further
selection may be made and hence no summary. What is now needed is a
query mechanism, and with others I'm looking into making a SRU context
set for this.
In my opinion we do need super resolvers that locate physical and
digital queries and even the best source for a reference look up
request. We need ILS systems that can respond to queries. If the
standards are clear and simple enough, that is the first start towards
interoperability.
Janifer Gatenby
Strategic Research * OCLC PICA B.V.
Schipholweg 99 * P.O. Box 876 * 2300 AW Leiden * The Netherlands
t +31 71 524 6516 * m +31 6 1710 2867 * f +31 71 522 31 19
e j.gatenby_at_oclcpica.org * w www.oclcpica.org
Received on Tue Sep 11 2007 - 11:01:30 EDT