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Web technology presents exciting opportunities for the curators of collections of digitised images, but collaboration is vital if this potential is to be realised. DMU's ELISE II project, aiming to demonstrate a service that provides access to multiple image collections, is especially supportive of the cooperative development and uptake of standards for data transfer (e.g. Z39.50) and for the representation of structure and content (e.g. Dublin Core metadata).

Detail research undertaken to determine the key differences in the performance of certain centralised (physical) and distributed (virtual) bibliographic catalogue services, and to suggest strategies for improving interoperability and performance in, and between, physical and virtual models.

Methodically defined searches of a centralised catalogue service and selected distributed catalogues were conducted using the Z39.50 information retrieval protocol, allowing search types to be semantically defined. The methodology also entailed the use of two workshops comprising systems librarians and cataloguers to inform suggested strategies for improving performance and interoperability within both environments.

Technical interoperability was permitted easily between centralised and distributed models, however, the various individual configurations permitted only limited semantic interoperability. Significant prescription in cataloguing and indexing guidelines, greater participation in the program for collaborative cataloguing, consideration of future functional requirements for bibliographic records migration, and greater disclosure to end users are some of the suggested strategies to improve performance and semantic interoperability.

This paper not only informs the library and information science research community and union catalogue administrators, but also has numerous practical implications for those establishing distributed systems based on Z39.50 and search/retrieve web services as well as those establishing centralised systems.

The paper moves the discussion of Z39.50‐based systems away from anecdotal evidence and provides recommendations based on testing, and is intimately informed by the UK cataloguing and systems librarian community.

The management of autonomous, heterogeneous network resources and services provides new challenges which libraries are now addressing. This paper outlines an approach based on the construction of broker services which mediate access to resources. It outlines a framework – the MODELS Information Architecture – for thinking about the components of broker services and their logical arrangement. It describes several development projects and services which show how brokers are developing. It uses examples drawn from the serials environment to describe some of the issues. Technologists understand that they must build more stable and unobtrusive media. They must establish more coherent contexts into which the technology may disappear.

Continues with the second part of an article on the topic of the NISO Z39.50 protocol for remote search and retrieval of information. Summarizes the issues dealt with in Part I. Describes a model for communications between various parts of an OSI supportive system.

This paper aims to describe how approaches such as semantic based query rewritings and FRBR work entities composition could solve existing problems and improve the overall behavior of a mediated based meta‐search environment. Moreover, it aims to present meta‐Composer, which is a meta‐search engine without query failures that composes work level entities for display, as well as an autonomous open service for discovering substitutions of unsupported access points, in the context of the Z39.50 environment.

Semantic Access Point Network (SAPN) engine, which is a system for substitution of unsupported access points by exploiting semantic access point information from an RDFS description, was extended as a query rewriting system taking into account user preferences for recall and precision. Additionally, the Library of Congress FRBR display tool was extended to create, in the first place, MARC21, UNIMARC and MODS wrappers for the production of work‐expression‐manifestation identifiers, and, secondly, the composition of work clusters. Finally, pazpar2, the open source meta‐search engine was used as both the middleware and the client platform for the integration of all the above components and the development of meta‐Composer.

Consistent extension of the meta‐search search functionality is possible from the lowest common denominator of the supported access points through semantic based query rewritings. Furthermore, enabling query specificity, which restricts the resulting records, could really improve the overall performance of the system and allow for more space for other extensions. Work centric result presentation gives a more compact and coherent view to the user compared to the typical record‐based de‐duplicated display.

The technical limitation for retrieving all the results from all sources, especially for large result sets, indicates the need for further research for the development of heuristics in order to find the best sources for enriching the results by unique work clusters. The absence of tools, such as authority files, limits the accuracy of the FRBRization process and the discovery of correlations between related works.

Consistent meta‐search services require widespread use of international metadata standards and communication protocols.

The SAPN technology enforces implicitly the semantic interoperability in the context of the Z39.50 protocol. meta‐Composer is an open service which offers meta‐search within valuable sources world wide and it also provides the potential to evaluate new services. The SAPN open service gives the ability to any other mediator or client, to extend and improve consistently its search functionality, in the same context and by using web services technology.

The role, potential and interaction of networked catalogues and collection‐level description have recently been given emphasis in order that efficient resource discovery mechanisms, and the effective organisation of such resources, be facilitated within the UK's developing JISC information environment (IE). This article describes the work of CC‐interop, a JISC project, and related projects that inform the development of the IE and its ability to instantiate the functional model of online resource discovery to which JISC aspires. The article reviews the evolution of Z39.50 virtual union catalogue services and collection description services that preceded CC‐interop. The paper also discusses how such work is informing regional information environments, with particular reference to Scotland, and reveals how such local arrangements will benefit the wider JISC IE.

In Hong Kong resource sharing for cooperative cataloguing for Chinese language materials started in the 1990s with an infrastructure of a Z29.50‐based distributed system under the auspices of JULAC of the University Grants Committee. The advantages and limitations of the distributed approach for resource sharing are considered. Problems such as variant MARC formats, romanisation, and codes for information exchange are examined. Unresolved practice issues specific to Chinese language materials are discussed. Resource descriptions for resource sharing, especially cataloguing, are introduced.

Z39.50 Extended Services. Most production information services provide a suite of services that are not strictly information retrieval, but support real‐world information retrieval application; for example, saving result sets, printing records, and executing queries on a periodic schedule. The Z39.50 Information Retrieval Protocol does not currently include protocol or service primitives to support these services.

Materials for teaching, learning and research are moving into the digital sphere. This move is affecting scholarly communication, teaching and learning in the academic community in important ways. These are significant changes, operating at technical, service, organisational and cultural levels. In this paper we wish to examine some of these changes. However, our aims are modest: we will focus on technical developments and on some of the emerging services that these are making possible.

Unicorn and STILAS are multiuser client/server systems developed in and for the Unix environment to automate all aspects of information management, from cataloging and authority control to intelligent access of non‐SIRSI databases. In keeping with the client/server concept, SIRSI has introduced a graphical user interface (GUI) to Unicorn and STILAS. The SIRSI system provides a path to information both inside and outside the library. SIRSI provides a standard interface, an “Intelligent Interface” client to diverse database systems and other vendors' library automation systems. SIRSI's Reference Database Managers provide an intelligent connection to locally mounted reference databases. SIRSI's VIZION, a stand‐alone desktop client, provides an automatic graphical user interface to hundreds of online sources of information and services available through the Internet and via modem. Furthermore, SIRSI has recently introduced WebCat, which facilitates mounting and access to the complete catalogs and other services of libraries over the Internet's World Wide Web.