The first meeting of the Library System Study group was held on September 21, 2001 and its activity started to create standards for implementation of Z39.50 in Japan. It was remarkable that 30 people from a variety of organizations (i.e., system development companies, governmental institutions regarding bibliographic databases and university libraries) participated in the meeting to discuss issues on standards.
While Z39.50 have been on test beds at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Waseda University, National Institute of Informatics, and Keio University, the need of standards (e.g., supported MARC, a character code) related to the protocol has been recognized for its implementation.
The cross-institutional group activities will take an important role to create the standards for Z39.50 and make a contribution to globalization of library systems in Japan; the group should be also recognized as a collaborative model among different communities including university libraries with tight budgeting.
In the meeting, the aim and objectives of the group were proposed and agreed among the participants. The participants reported each organizationfs practice and plan for implementation of z39.50 and many challenges.
- Agenda
Opening remarks / Takashi Okabayashi
The aim and objectives of the group / Shin Irie
Election of steering committee members
Reports on implementation of Z39.50 / Participants
Keynote technical speech: Z39.50 and its trends / Shigeru Ishida (Intec Web and Genome Informatics Corp.)
Discussion and plan for the action
Closing remarks / Yoshiko Kato
- Summary
The aim of the group:
Collaboration for creating standards related to Z39.50 and contribution to globalization of library systems in Japan.
The objective of this year:
To create a proposal draft of standards for implementation of Z39.50 in Japan
Steering Committee members:
Shin Irie (Keio University)
Masatsugu Kaneko (Waseda University)
Kenji Kamo (Kinokuniya Company)
Yasuyuki Sato (Maruzen Company)
Planned activities:
Collect and open information on Target
Provide a test environment for Target
Create a draft for standards for implementation of Z39.50
Broadcast news from RLG and OCLC
Operate a web site to publicize the group activities
Operate a mailing list for discussion among the members
Hold meetings four times a year
Issues to be discussed:
A range of character sets for Target
MARC format for Target
A standard BIB-1 Attribute Set
Romanization of Japanese