Z39.50 Information Retrieval Connections to Northwestern's Voyager Databases

What is Z39.50?

Z39.50 is a national standard defining a protocol for computer-to-computer information retrieval. Z39.50 makes it possible for a user in one system to search and retrieve information from other computer systems (that have also implemented Z39.50) without knowing the search syntax that is used by those other systems. Z39.50 is an American National Standard that was originally approved by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO [1]) in 1988.

The legal definition of Z39.50 from the Library of Congress, Official Z39.50 maintenance Agency [2]

How does Northwestern University Library (NUL) use Z39.50?

Northwestern University Library provides Z39.50 access to its OPAC and other Voyager databases. This connectivity can be utilized by other libraries and other Z39.50 client/server systems. Northwestern in conjunction with the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC [3]) provides access to multiple academic library catalogs using the "Virtual Electronic Library [4]". You can also use many client based bibliographic tools to access our Voyager databases (e.g., Endnote, Bookwhere).

Configuration Information

• Access NUL Voyager databases via Z39.50 [5]
• NUcat [6]
• Transportation Article File [7]
• Africana Conference Paper Index [8]
• Africana Vertical File [9]
• Endnote [10] connection files for the Northwestern University Voyager databases

Z39.50 information on the internet

• Z39.50 Resources on the web [11]
• Library of Congress Z3950 maintenance agency site [12]
• The Z39.50 Information Retrieval Standard: Part I: [13] A Strategic View of Its Past, Present and Future by Clifford Lynch
• List of Attributes for the Z39.50 Standard [14] (the BIB-1 Attribute List)