Message-Id: <199602051603.KAA26337@library.wustl.edu> Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 09:59:23 CST From: Jerry Caswell <mailto:jvc@IASTATE.EDU> Subject: Re: Loose Ends To: Multiple recipients of list WEBCAT-L <mailto:WEBCAT-L@WUVMD.WUSTL.EDU>
Jeff Huestis wrote:> Consider a scenario in which the user searches a catalog and finds a
> record in which there is a URL for the electronic version of the
> resource cataloged. He clicks on the link, and pulls up the full text
> document. In the body of the text, or in footnotes and bibliographies,
> there are citations some of which are highlighted as links. If the cited
> reference is also in electronic form, the link takes you to the document.
> If the document is not in electronic form, but is held in the library's
> catalog, then following the link connects back to the catalog, locates
> the document surrogate and displays it on the screen with its non-electronic
> URL (ie., its call number).
I too envision this method of navigating through catalogs and resources in the future. But doesn't it have some implications for the "stateless/stateful" discussion? If one opens sessions on several Z-servers and never comes back to them as one navigates through a series of catalogs and electronic documents, wouldn't this create a real resource problem? Granted that Z-servers will have timeouts for inactive sessions and Web gateways or clients should keep track of each step so that one could go back to an earlier step and reactivate a Z39.50 connection, but on the whole I think it might be simpler if http to Z39.50 connections in this type of environment were stateless.
> Conceivably, the catalog search
> could be performed on other libraries' catalogs via Z39.50 linkages,
> with the result being a partially filled out interlibrary loan request on the
> user's browser display. Both the local holding display and the
> interlibrary loan service assume the ability to connect to a catalog, and
> execute a one-step probe to an individual record--in other words, a
> CGI application with all the necessary form data concatenated onto the
> URL.
One corollary to this is that the ILL request would then be sent to the library where the item was located. However, in actual practice, interlibrary loan requests are governed by a series of inter-institutional relationships that are quite removed from the navigational paths that users may take on the Internet. The ILL people that I know are insisting that those relationships still govern borrowing transactions irrespective of the source of the user's request.
**************************************************************************** * Jerry V. Caswell * Email: mailto:JVC@IASTATE.EDU * * Assistant Director * * * for Automated Systems * * * Iowa State University Library * Phone: (515) 294-5704 * * Ames, IA 50011-2140 * FAX: (515) 294-5525 * ****************************************************************************