3.1. Bibliographic Search and Retrieval
Library users conduct a variety of search and retrieval transactions. The functional requirements for bibliographic search and retrieval delineate a limited number of core searches, the browsing of indexes, and the appropriate retrieval mechanisms needed by library users when interacting with library catalogues and other electronic resources discovery services.
3.1.1. Bibliographic Search
Librarians and library users engage in a wide range of searching behaviors. Agreements on a core set of bibliographic searches have evolved through various Z39.50 profiling efforts:
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Author searches that include searching for an established name heading, searching for names not under any authority control, and searching where only part of a name is used as a search term
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Title searches that include searching for the entire title, the first part of a title, and searching using one or more words from a title
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Subject searches that include searching for a complete subject heading, the first part of a subject heading, and searching using one or more subject words as search terms
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Keyword searches that include high recall searches using one or more words from author, title, subject, and other common access points
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Boolean searches that include combining search terms with the Boolean operators of AND, OR, NOT
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Truncation searches where the final word of an expression may contain additional characters
Given these bibliographic search behaviors, Section 5.A. Functional Area A: Bibliographic Search and Retrieval, with Primary Focus on Library Catalogues, details three levels of searching.
Level 0 can be considered a set of core searches with a general focus on recall rather than precision. Level 0 searches provide basic functionality for common author, title, subject searches. Level 0 searches are likely to be available in existing implementations.
Level 1 inherits all Level 0 searches and defines additional searches to provide for more precision in search and retrieval. Implementors are encouraged to provide Level 1 searches.
Level 2 inherits all Level 0 and 1 searches and defines additional searches to provide access to more precise bibliographic data such as key titles for serials.
Each search defined in Level 0, Level 1 and Level 2 includes a description of expected behavior, and a prescription for the attribute combination Z-clients are required to send and Z-servers are required to support.
3.1.2. Browsing Indexes
Librarians and library users often use a browse function on a local system to identify appropriate search terms to use in a query. Browse-based searching can assist users in improving their selection of search terms for the query. This is a useful feature, often used in conjunction with known-item searching. Such browse-based searching can be seen as an alternative searching strategy for some search requirements listed in 3.1.1. Browsing indexes is a requirement for Z39.50 implementations and can be achieved through the Z39.50 SCAN service, and this requirement is addressed in Level 1.
3.1.3. Basic Bibliographic Retrieval
This profile addresses retrieval of bibliographic records from library catalogues. Retrieval of bibliographic records given the existence of national MARC formats presents interoperability challenges. Z-servers must support the retrieval of brief and/or full forms of bibliographic records in an internationally accepted MARC format. Depending on business needs Z-servers may also support plain text format to achieve interoperability. The profile assumes that regional, national, state, local or project companion profiles to this international profile may specify additional requirements such as a preferred MARC format when retrieving records from MARC databases within a specific region, country, state, locality, or project.
3.2. Bibliographic Holdings Retrieval and Search
Identifying which collections contain certain information resources is a key factor in creating an infrastructure for resource sharing among libraries. Librarians require holdings information for resource sharing, and library users need holdings information for knowing where to go to use or borrow a resource. The holdings information should provide sufficient identification and description of an item to give the user adequate information to make a decision about requesting or retrieving the item.
Retrieval of bibliographic holdings information requires the use of the XML record syntax at Conformance Level 1 and above, and requires support for the ZIG Abstract Holdings Schema as specified in Functional Area B. Specifications for searching holdings are not included in release 2.0 of this profile.
3.3. Cross-Domain Search and Retrieval
Librarians and library users desire integrated access to distributed resources, often in conjunction with resource discovery where searches are across many types of information resources. There is a requirement for effective cross-domain searching of diverse resources including library catalogues, government information, museum systems, and archives. A user may wish to send a single search to one or more of these resources.
For example, a user within a library might desire to search the local catalogue plus one or more museum systems and an archive to find information related to a specific artist. A library Z-client configured for cross-domain searching could send out queries to Z39.50 accessible museum and archive systems configured to support cross-domain searching. Similarly, a museum curator could use a museum Z-client configured to support cross-domain searching to search the local museum system, one or more other museum systems, one or more library catalogues, and government resources that are Z39.50 accessible and configured to support cross-domain searching.
Interoperability in the retrieval of such resources requires standard record syntaxes. This requirement can be accommodated through the Z39.50 Simple Unstructured Text Record Syntax (SUTRS) and the eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
This profile assumes that basic cross-domain searching behavior for resource discovery is similar to searching behavior defined for basic bibliographic searching. Therefore, the basic bibliographic searches defined in Level 0 are required for cross-domain Level 0 searches. Cross-domain Level 1 searching has some overlap with the basic bibliographic Level 1 searches but has fewer requirements for precision searches and requires support for unanchored phrase searching.
3.4. Authority Record Search and Retrieval
This profile addresses the searching of records in library authority files. Library users may perform a variety of searches and this profile identifies the functional requirements for the following types of searches:
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A name search will look for matches in indexes derived from data elements containing names used as access points or references.
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A title search will look for matches in indexes derived from data elements containing a title of a work, a uniform title, or a series title.
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A subject search will look for matches in indexes derived from data elements containing subjects (e.g., topical subject, geographical subject, title as subject, and names as subject) and their references.
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An any search will search commonly used access points defined by the server. For each level of searching that specifies name, title and subject searches, an "any" search should look for matches in at least the indexes related to those access points.
Level 1 defines a core set of authority file searches. Additional searches have been defined at Level 2, which inherits all Level 1 requirements.
For retrieval, a Z-client must be able to receive records in the MARC21 or SUTRS record syntaxes. Z-servers must be able to deliver a record in MARC21. Additionally, both clients and servers are encouraged to support UNIMARC.
