In this day and age, it goes without saying that information is no longer locked away in libraries and information repositories. Building your own bibliographies from remote bibliographic databases shouldn't require expensive software or expert knowledge of highly cryptic and often proprietary query syntaxes. But what if the same search interface could be used to access these databases regardless of server platform and software programs? The Z39.50 protocol was designed with this goal in mind. It's now a feature found in most major library management systems, like GEAC, DRA, or Best-Seller, as a server and client. It also comes as a simple client in many personal bibliographic management packages or as stand-alone products. In this article, I will review a few Z39.50 client software programs that are either part of personal bibliographic management tools, such as EndNote or Reference Manager, or as a standalone product like BookWhere? 2000 and ZNavigator. I willprimarily focus on software programs that use TYPE-1 query structure and the BIB-1 attribute set since these relate to records of a bibliographic nature. I tested these software programs against existing Z39.50 servers, and I found their strengths and weaknesses. But first, I think that a little historical and technical background on Z39.50 is in order to understand a little better how these client software programs work and how to use them to their fullest. ABOUT Z39.50 The ANSI/NISO Z39.50 is the Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification. It was originally proposed in 1984 by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and approved in 1988 (known as Version 1). It was revised by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) in 1992 (Version 2) and again in 1995 (Version 3). The standard is also recognized by the ISO since Version 2. Originally, the ANSI/NISO Z39.50 was designed for use with bibliographic information.
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