Message-Id: <199601312301.RAA07532@library.wustl.edu> Date: Wed, 31 Jan 1996 18:01:46 -0500 From: "Timothy G. Kambitsch" <mailto:kambitsch@DAYTON.LIB.OH.US> Subject: Re: WebPAC and ALS/Vmark licenses To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
Scott Salzman writes:>
>Does the fact that HTTP is a "connectionless" protocol (and so,
>presumably, the amount of time that webcat clients actually tie up user
>licenses should be shorter than with session-oriented connections like
>telnet).
Scott, we should keep that as our little secret ;-) I've just negotiated a user-limit license with a database provider and if I reach a limit of traditional connection oriented users, I can just point them to a Web to Z39.50 gateway that I wrote that only maintains a connection why a search is in progress. Think of OCLC's $6000 per simultaneous user licensing scam (I meant to type scheme) and you get a sense of how much savings a connectionless oriented interface could mean.
Is this fair to the data providers? I don't know. Is this any different than the Dialog-Link or other software for dialing up a commercial database vendor searching and downloading the results?
BTW
Since everyone is sharing their webbed Catalog URLs, here's the simple one I wrote a few years ago:
http://www.dayton.lib.oh.us/drabin/niso_forms
A simpler, LYNX friendly, version:
http://www.dayton.lib.oh.us/drabin/search
Tim Kambitsch <mailto:kambitsch@dayton.lib.oh.us> Dayton and Montgomery County Public Library 513-227-9560 215 East Third Street Dayton OH 45402 fax: 513-227-9524