Z39.50 is a national standard defining a protocol for computer-to-computer information retrieval. Z39.50 makes it possible for a user in one system to search and retrieve information from other computer systems (that have also implemented Z39.50) without knowing the search syntax that is used by those other systems. Z39.50 is an American National Standard that was originally approved by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) in 1988.

Z39.50 access will allow you to connect to Catalyst (Arthur Lakes Library Catalog) using client software such as EndNote.  EndNote is bibliographic management software that, in addition to organizing and managing book and journal article citations, allows you to search databases using EndNote in place of the databases' native search interface.

The Arthur Lakes Library uses the Voyager library management system supplied by Endeavor Information Systems Inc. This document provides technical information for Z39.50 implementors that is necessary in order to access the Voyager Z39.50 servers for the database. This document assumes a general familiarity with Z39.50.

Voyager z39.50 server conforms to z39.50-1995 (Version 3) of the standard. A subset of attributes from the bib-1 attribute set are supported, and codes from the bib-1 diagnostic set are utilized.

We ask that you not use the CSM production database until you have successfully tested your client with a test database (for test databases see http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/lcserver.html).

To learn more about Z39.50, see the references at the  bottom of this document.

• I.P. Address: 129.19.152.40 (catalyst.coalliance.org)
• Port: 7190 (use 7195 if you want to search and display Unicode characters)
• Database name: VOYAGER
• The online catalog does not have a username or password.
• Availability: 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. The system is unavailable for a short time every night about 3-5am Eastern Time.

Contact information

Laura Guy / (303) 384-2355

The Catalyst catalog is a public resource.

User identifier and password is not required.

Profiles supported

Z39.50-1995 (Version 3) of the standard. A subset of attributes from the bib-1 attribute set are supported, and codes from the bib-1 diagnostic set are utilized.

The Voyager server supports the following services:

• initialization

• search

• present

The Scan bit is on in the Voyager Init Response, but Scan is not supported.

Protocol version

• Z39.50-1995 (Version 3)

Options supported

• search
• present

Preferred message size

• Voyager will negotiate the client down to 16,000 bytes if requested size exceeds 16,000 bytes, and accept client proposal if it is less than 16,000 bytes.

Maximum record size

• Same as preferred message size above.

ID authentication

• User id and password are not required.

Result set name

• Only "default" is supported (case insensitive).

Database names (case sensitive)

• Use "VOYAGER".

Element set names

• "B" (brief) and "F" (full) supported.

Query

• Type-1 only is supported.

Attribute set ID

• Bib-1 only is supported.

Operand

• The Result set ID (i.e., "default") cannot be used in the Operand. Qualifying searches not supported.

Operators supported

• AND
• OR
• AND-NOT

Currently available:

• USMARC or OPAC (use OPAC record syntax in order to display holdings data)

For further conversions it is possible to use the UseMARCON format converter, a public domain software (see http://www.bl.uk/services/bibliographic/usemarcon.html) developed by the British Library and CROSSNET.

Value	Description
1	Personal name
2	Corporate name
3	Conference name
4	Title
5	Title series
6	Uniform title
7	ISBN
8	ISSN
12	Local number (035 field)
13	Dewey classification
16	LC call number
17	NLM call number
20	Other call number
21	Subject heading
25	MeSH subject heading
27	LC subject heading
31	Date of publication
33	Title - key
41	Title - variant
42	Title - former
43	Title - abbreviated
48	Number - national bibliography
51	Number - music publisher
54	Code - language
56	Code - institution
57	Name and title
58	Name geographic
59	Place of publication
63	Note
1002	Name
1003	Author
1004	Author (personal name)
1005	Author (corporate name)
1007	Standard identifier
1009	Subject (personal name)
1016	Any (keyword)
1018	Name of publisher
1027	Standard technical report number
1032	Electronic location and access
1056	Dissertation note
1074	Subject (name)
1078	Subject (title)
1079	Subject (topical)
1185	Credits/performers
1209	Electronic access

Value	Description
3	Equal

Values other than "3" are accepted, but not regarded.

Value	Description
1	First in field
3	Any

Value	Description
1	Phrase

Values other than "1" are accepted, but not regarded.

Value	Description
1	Right truncation
100	Do not truncate

Value	Description
1	Incomplete subfield

Values other than "1" are accepted, but not regarded.

The Use attribute is REQUIRED.

For the other attributes, if an attribute type and value are not supplied by the client, the following defaults are applied

Relation	Equal (value=3)
Position	Any (value=3)
Structure	Phrase (value=1)
Truncation	Do not truncate (value=100)
Completeness	Incomplete subfield (value=1)

• Keyword search terms can appear anywhere in the field.
• If multiple words appear in the same search term, the search term will be processed as a phrase.
• If the words appear in separate operands (ANDed together) they can appear in different fields in the same record.
• Personal name keywords: A keyword search term can be the first, middle, or last name. If more than one name appears in the search term of a keyword search, the order is significant. Last name should precede first name.
• Keyword indexing does not include phrases that cross subfield boundaries. If the search term contains a phrase that may cross subfield boundaries (e.g., subject heading, LC call number, etc.), use a left-anchored (right-truncated) search. (In other words, Position attribute = "first-in-field"; Truncation attribute = "right truncation".)

• Phrase search terms can appear anywhere in the field.
• Phrase searches that include the "First-in-field" Position attribute should begin with the first significant word in the field.
• Personal name phrase searches: The order in which the names appear in the search term is significant. In other words, the surname should appear first (with or without comma) in order to match against entry fields in Voyager indexes.

• Use a hyphen in all ISSN search terms (e.g., 1234-5678).
• Include hyphens in ISBN search terms , in use attribute value 1016 (any) it is possible to search ISBN without hyphens

• Searches are not supported against previous result sets.

• The questions mark ("?") is supported as a truncation character.

• Keyword searches:
  • Records in keyword search result sets are in order by the Voyager control number (MARC field 001)
• Left-anchored searches:
  • Records in left-anchored search result sets are sorted by the field being searched (e.g., title, subject, call number, etc.).

• Search terms (after mapping from intersite syntax to the internal Voyager search system) must not exceed 255 characters.

• There is a limit of 10,000 records that can be retrieved in a result set.
• The server does not support the complete MARC 21 character set.
• Diacritics and many special characters are available only via port 7195 (see above).

• It is not possible to search the authority files.
• When the Voyager server result set is a medium or a small set (based on the size of result set in relation to large-set, small-set, and medium-set number parameters in the Search Request) the following three encoding problems can result:
  1. When records are expected in the Search Response (e.g., a medium set or a small set), the presentStatus is a "0" (success) instead of a "5" (failure).
  2. When a non-surrogate diagnostic record is returned instead of result set records in the Search Response, the value of numberOfRecordsReturned is a "0" instead of a "1".
  3. The non-surrogate diagnostic record never contains an addInfo (which is mandatory in the standard). If these problems are making interworking with the Voyager server difficult, it is suggested that the client small-set and medium-set number be set to zero and the large-set to one (making every set a large set) until these server problems have been corrected by Endeavor.

Z39.50: Selected List of Resources, compiled by William E. Moen and Teresa Lepchenske, School of Library and Information Sciences, University of North Texas

Biblio Tech Review "Z39.50 stand-alone client software review"

Z39.50 Keyword Searching of Bibliographic Systems: A discussion Paper

Z39.50 Resource Page (The NISO site)

Library of Congress Z39.50 Gateway, access to LC's catalog and many other institutions. Good place to read and experiment.