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UDT Series on Data Communication Technologies and Standards for Libraries

Models for Open System Protocol Development : A Technical Report (1994)

Edited by Liv Aasa Holm

Contributions by members from the following institutions:

Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany
Direction de la Programmation et du Developpement Universitaire, France
Division for Library Automation, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I, Belgium
Library of Congress, USA
National Library of Canada
Norwegian School of Library and Information Science, Norway
Research Libraries Group, Inc., USA
UK Office for Library and Information Networking, United Kingdom

Ordering Information

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. TC46 APPLICATION PROTOCOLS

  2. SEARCH AND RETRIEVE PROTOCOL (SR)

  3. INTERLIBRARY LOAN PROTOCOL (ILL)

  4. WORK IN PROGRESS

  5. JTC1 APPLICATION PROTOCOLS

  6. APPLICATION LAYER STRUCTURE

  7. MODES

  8. ARCHITECTURE AND MAPPING

  9. SYNTAX ISSUES

  10. REGISTRATION ISSUES

  11. TAXONOMY AND ISP ISSUES

  12. MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS

  13. PROTOCOLS BENEATH THE APPLICATION: OSI AND TCP/IP

    ABBREVIATIONS

    STANDARDS REFERENCED

PREFACE

This report was prepared as a project of the Standing Committee on Information Technology of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). In 1991, Search and Retrieve (SR) and Interlibrary Loan (ILL), the first international standards for application protocols specially designed for the information community, were just being completed. These protocols were intended for use over the newly emerging Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite and questions kept coming up concerning the OSI architecture. How were the various services of SR and ILL to interact? How did SR and ILL protocols relate to and differ from other application protocols developed by other standards groups? How are the different syntaxes related and where are they appropriate? Can store and forward and connection oriented communication be used together?

Within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the members of Working Group 4 (WG4) of Technical Committee 46's Subcommittee 4, which was the WG responsible for the development of the SR and ILL application protocols, noted these issues and a number of others. There was, however, no appropriate place in the protocol documents to treat them. The idea for a technical report was presented to the IFLA Standing Committee on Information Technology in 1991 and the Committee enthusiastically endorsed its preparation. The Section had followed the development of open system communication for several years, sponsoring a major satellite meeting on the topic in London in the late 1980s. With IFLA funding, the Standing Committee engaged an editor, Liv Aasa Holm, who teaches at the Norwegian School of Library and Information Science in Norway and has experience with protocol projects in the Nordic countries. Holm had been a member of WG4 since its work on protocols began in the mid 1980s, thus her qualifications were excellent.

Holm solicited contributions from the members of the ISO WG4 and other experts in the field, obtaining text from persons associated with the institutions mentioned on the title page. The technical report became a combination of description and recommendation, concentrating on the application level protocols and addressing the issues identified by WG4 and other issues that the Standing Committee raised. A short final section treats the leading communications protocols over which the application protocols must be positioned.

To bring consistency to the text the contributions were integrated rather than being presented as a series of chapters by different authors, with the editor providing additional information where it was needed. The result is an excellent and very readable document on a myriad of protocol-related topics that are both timely and relevant today. It is valuable to read in its entirety but also to read in parts as questions about specific issues arise. Because the report has both IFLA and ISO origins, it represents a unique collaboration between the developers of standards and the users of standards.

The Standing Committee appreciates the assistance of the IFLA Universal Data Transfer (UDT) core program for publishing this report and making it available worldwide. It should be noted that the editor gave a preliminary presentation on the project topic at the Open Session of the Section on Information Technology during the IFLA Annual Conference in Barcelona in August 1993, and a version of that presentation appeared in IFLA Journal in 1994.

Sally H. McCallum
Chair, IFLA Standing Committee on Information Technology
June 7, 1994

FOREWORD

This technical report was sponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Section on Information Technology, and written in collaboration with participants in an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group and other experts in the field. ISO Technical Committee 46, Information and Documentation, is responsible for standards specific to the library, information service, and publishing sectors. Its Subcommittee 4 handles aspects of automation with SC4's Working Group 4 covering the specific area of computer protocols. The protocol standards developed by WG4 are developed within the framework for open system protocols set forth by ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC1), the ISO TC responsible for general computer standards.

ISO TC46 has defined basic application protocols for Search and Retrieve (SR) and for Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Work has been started to define additional services to SR and ILL such as Document Delivery. New services will be added to the existing protocols. SR and ILL are described along with a number of augmentations that are currently being standardized.

The TC46 application protocols may be used in various environments and in combination with other protocols. This technical report contains a discussion of architectural issues and descriptions of several other protocols. The protocols make use of several transfer syntaxes, object identifiers, etc. These are described in more detail in this technical report. Interoperability issues are discussed throughout the report, with a special section explaining profiles and another on the various underlying protocol layers, OSI and TCP/IP.

Following the text of this report is a list of abbreviations used and standards referenced in the sections of the report.

Liv Aasa Holm

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