M5.24 Details of Z39.50 catalogue resources provided to the ViTaL team (NHML) by actively collaborating institutions

The ViTaL metasearch service uses the standard Z39.50 protocol to send queries to online public access catalogues (OPACs). ViTaL uses this facility to allow the querying of EDIT partner library resources, hence the need for these libraries to supply the relevant connection information to the ViTaL team.

The scope of this milestone has been extended somewhat, with all of the EDIT partners being contacted and asked for this information, not just those who have confirmed their wish to have an active involvement. This is because the details of the OPAC services, where they exist, should not be difficult to provide by the partner libraries, and the additional information will allow us to provide a more useful search service during our pilot and the subsequent development of the system.

Staff at the various EDIT partner libraries was asked to provide the following information relevant to their library system and OPAC:

1) What library system you use (supplier, product and version)?

2) Does your system support Z39.50? If NOT, please go directly to question 6.

3) What is the IP address of your Z39.50 server?

4) What is the username and password to connect with (if applicable)

5) What is the Z39.50 database name?

6) What is the URL of your online library catalogue?

 

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