There is no record of any minutes from the first ever ZIG meeting, held at LC in March 1990. Following is the attendance list and agenda, supplied by Larry Dixson. Following that are transcribed manuscript meeting notes taken by our dear departed friend, Dennis MacKinnon, one of the ZIG pioneers. They were graciously transcribed by Joe Zeeman. NISO Z39.50 Implementation Workshop Monday, March 12, 1990 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Library of Congress, Madison Building, Room 642 Washington, D.C. AGENDA: 1. Call to order (Hinnebusch) 2. Introductions (Michael) 3. Informal organization and appointment of Chair 4. Proposed changes to Z39.50 , ISO TC 46 SR, NISO Plans (Denenberg) 5. Proposal to develop a Profile or a set of Stable Implementors' Agreements 6. Implementation issues 7. Interoperability planning 8. Discussion of code sharing 9. Scheduling of next meeting 10. Adjournment List of Attendees Organization Individual Email Address (Phone) -------------------------- --------------- --------------------- University of California Clifford Lynch CALUR@UCCMVSA.BITNET Division of Library Automation Mark Needleman (415) 987-0522 Florida Center for Library Mark Hinnebusch FCLMTH@NERVM.BITNET Automation (904) 392-9020 Dartmouth College Robert Brentrup BOB.BRENTRUP@DARTMOUTH.EDU (603) 646-1413 OCLC Ralph LeVan BHP@RSCH.OCLC.ORG DRA Jim Michael JIM@DRANET.DRA.COM Sean Donelan (800) 325-0888 UC Berkeley John Kunze JAK@VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU (415) 642-1530 Penn State Eric Ferrin EGF@PSULIAS (814) 865-1818 Carnegie-Mellon Mark Kibbey KIBBEY+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU (412) 268-3692 Virginia Tech Andy Cohill COHILL@VTVM1 (703) 231-7576 Library of Congress Sally McCallum BB.SHM@RLG.STANFORD.EDU Ray Denenberg BB.RAY@RLG.STANFORD.EDU Larry Dixson (202) 707-6237 Thinking Machines Brewster Kahle BREWSTER@THINK.COM Franklin Davis FAD@THINK.COM RLG Lennie Stovel BL.MDS@RLG Software Kinetics Dennis MacKinnon MACKINNON@CRC.SKL.DND.CA (613) 831-0888 National Library of Canada Jean-Eudes Beriault (819) 994-6831 University of Texas at Austin Jean Hamrick LYAA047@UTA3081 Digital Equipment ? ? SUMMARY OF TOPICS SUBMITTED FOR DISCUSSION I. Procedural and Administrative Relationship to ISO TC46 Search and Retrieval Protocol (LC) - status of TC46 SR - NISO plans to amend Z39.50 - ASN.1 for Z39.50 NISO Z39.50 Maintenance Agency plans (LC) - defect reports - PICS Proforma - conformance test suite Registration Procedures (Canada, LC) Z39.50 Profile (Canada, FCLA, LC) Interoperability testing plans (Canada, DRA, FCLA) Sharing of code (DRA, VPI) - low-level routines, i.e., communications, query parsing and formulation - interface design characteristics and functions Agreements for demonstrations (DRA) Conformance with GOSIP (FCLA) Addition of Z39.50 SIAs into GOSIP (FCLA) Use of BITNET and LISTSERV for information sharing (VPI) II. Lower Layer Services Choice of networks (DRA, FCLA) Mapping of addresses (FCLA) Minimum Quality of Service (FCLA) Use of expidited, typed or capability data (FCLA) Required session service subset, i.e., BAS, BCS, BSS (FCLA) Use of synchronization services (FCLA) Use of Activity Management servies (FCLA) Use of ASN.1 as a context syntax (Canada, FCLA, LC) III. Application Level Services Directory services (DRA, FCLA) Use of FTAM for record transfer (FCLA) Use of ROSE (FCLA) Use of CCR, ISO DIS 8649/3 (FCLA) ACSE/ACP parameters (FCLA) Multiple application contexts for negotiation and results transfer (FCLA) IV. Z39.50 Particulars Provision for broadcast, including refer-forward (FCLA) Type of record to transfer, MARC, MFHL, Sub LL Circ (FCLA) Encapsulation of multiple records for transfer into single PDU (FCLA) ASN.1 Encoding of transferred records (FCLA) V. Other Workstation interface, particularly the use of windows (DRA) VI. Presentation Pass through from Session; full duplex Kernel (normal mode) VII. Association Control -------------------------------------------------------------------- Z39.50 MEETING - WASHINGTON 90-03-12 These notes have been transcribed from manuscript notes taken at the first ZIG meeting by Dennis MacKinnon. They are somewhat sketchy, but serve to illustrate the topics discussed at the meeting Partial attendance: Bill Newell - LC Larry Dixson - LC Ray Denenberg - LC Vicki Kennedy - National Library of New Zealand Joe Ford John Kunze - UC Berkeley Robert Boes Mark Knopfer - Carnegie-Mellon University 4. Z39.50/ISO SR - LSP : agreed to implement Z39.50 using ASN.1. agreed to propose changes to Z39.50 to make it compatible with SR. - Role of Z39.50 maintenance agency: repository for source code? - Mark Hinnebusch: to set up Z39.50 list server and possibly a file access capability. - Thinking Machines: - up and running in month or two. - running over TCP/IP(now) /modems/AppleTalk - OCLC: 9 months experience with NYSERNET. : ISODE LC planning both origin and target for: a) - authorities (LC as origin) {type 1 query b) - NCCP (LC as target) {type 1 query - time fame: 1st 6 months of 1991 - OSI CS implementation / X.25 support & TCP/IP - cutover for LSP to occur after testing of LC/RLG - Digital supporting: - Penn State & Virginia College - Mercury Project at CMU - Z39.50 & ISODE - OCLC interested in simplification (eg. removal of session service) for local use. - TCP/IP: ICS ISO: RLG UC/DLA OCLC RLG (also ISO) FCLA OCLC (also ISO) NLC Thinking Machines (PC orientation) LC (no current plans for Z39.50) UPI DRA DRA (probably 1st) Dartmouth (PC orientation) 5. Profiles - need for 2: a) TCP b) OSI - Z39.50 PICS proforma: responsibility for PICS - existing LSP PICS: not necessarily in standard form. Action send to Mark an electronic and paper copy of Z39.50 PICS performa. Mandate: - no official one - role relative to IROBS: not clear Registration: issue: use of object identifier tags instead of pre-allocated tags. Use of Z39.50 vs SR: - use ASN.1 & SR version, but - include resource control and access control. - issue of acceptability of Z39.50 access control in ISO version - may not sell internationally. - more accurately: - enhance Z39.50 to achieve interoperability with 10162/3 -will not be backward compatible with Z39.50: 1988. - to become an addendum to Z39.50. - timing of NISO ballot addendum: approximately 6 months - LC proceeding on assumption that no significant changes will be made - not waiting for standards process. - UC planning to implement resource control Document Retrieval: - special working group to consider special requirements. GOSIP conformance: - no issue - Z39.50 was not accepted in GOSIP suite initially. Registration: - NISO will act as registration authority for international SR and national Z39.50 registration. - need to set up a working group under NISO or this group to manage the agreement of attribute sets. Z39.50 particulars: - to what extent can origin and target be blind to each other's queries. - OCLC position is that it is very tough - therefore use type 0. - big problem: every database indexes differently. Therefore need to know something about other systems' practices. Therefore same search to same database will produce different results if indexed differently. - useful to exchange info about database - future enhancement. - possible use of directory. - very difficult problems to describe how a database is indexed. - possibility of "explain database" to describe structure of info managed by a server. - however, want machine readable version of index info., but very difficult (eg. management of "stop lists", etc). - broadcast: not an immediate issue. Refer forward: - possibility of using directory - possibility of returning a diagnostic forward with info about other sources as a reasonable short term alternative. Record types: - circulation records - MARC records - holdings records - authority records - Possibility of 1 composite record Syntax. - need to define and register new record syntaxes. - where to register? (SR includes national syntaxes) ASN.1 Representation of MARC: - new structure definition or represent as single character string. - LC concerned about getting agreement on new syntax description. - check into G. Bochamn's study regarding mapping of ASN.1 to MARC encoding. Ron Larsen - U. of Maryland (library oriented) NTT. EDUCOM.NRC: directory of searchable databases on internet NSF: doing network information resources (more thorough than library suppliers) NISO Z39.50 maintenance agency will keep track of implementors and associated databases. ASN.1 abstract syntax: no approved form Advantages: 1) consistent with APDU syntax 2) MARC not suitable for all types of info. Disadvantage: 1) effort in developing agreed syntax - possible approach: - encode as MARC character string for now. - set up working group to develop ASN.1 abstract syntax as a priority - consider totality of MARC record family. - for non-MARC, use ASN.1 - use "format integration" form of bibliographic MARC. Application - Level Services - Directory services: shelve for now - FTAM: future consideration - CCR: - use of ACSE in TCP/IP - or ACP? - issue: - Portability of Presentation & Session - talk to Retix/Touch regarding code size for ACSE, P & S. - Profiles: - common upper stack - minimum stack - layers 1-4: TCP now TP0/X.25 now TP4/IP in future as migration from TCP - Lower Layer Services - basic session: BCS with full duplex - no mandatory segmentation - Presentation: - no X.410 - no context management - ACSE: - need to make TCP/IP people feel comfortable about the implications for themselves. Thinking Machines/Dow Jones/Apple - doing experimental work on info. retrieval for executives - short time frame - end of summer 1990 - want early feedback - environment: SUN/VAX UNIX front end to 64000 parallel processor - full text query-by-example Testing & Code Sharing Languages: C, PL/1, Pascal - many groups in public domain, RLG, LC, FCLA - Thinking Machines will have public domain server S/W for type 1 and type 3. - Mac UNIX (Sun) targets. - will have documentation on internal operation of server. - people encouraged to distribute design documentation: Mark [Hinnebusch] to act as clearinghouse. - Relevant Conferences - Macademia - ALA - Educom Conformance Test Suite: Maintained by maintenance facility. - more interoperability testing than conformance - no one official "test centre" - test code as shareable resource - use of TTCN? - 27 March for draft profile / April 10 - PICS profile Next Meeting - Tuesday June 5 - need to look at addressing, taking into account OSI, TCP/IP addressing / Full text. Extensions - use of SQL for bibliographic search: needs extensions to support textual paper. - see Full Text SQL - stateless servers: - need to change requirement that Present is mandatory. - also need to negotiate number of result sets? - do separate searches: initial is type 3, 2nd is type 1 using "system control no" - setting limits on use of result sets - notification of automatic deletes. (Possibility of Report Result)