Book Description

This preliminary report describes the work to date of the Task Group on Computer/Communication protocols for Bibliographic Data Interchange, which was formed in 1980 to develop a set of protocol standards to facilitate communication between heterogeneous library and information systems within the framework of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI). A brief account of how the group is fulfilling its mandate is provided, including the principal library applications and OSI application and the presentation layer services it considered (including a file transfer protocol, a common command language--CCL, a network directory system, and network virtual terminal), and its role in promoting OSI service and protocol specifications for library applications. In addition, it reflects the task group's current thinking on several issues of protocol design and implementation that are crucial to the realization of a nationwide bibliographic network in Canada and presents four interim recommendations. Four appendices list the terms of reference of the task group and the subcommittee, the members of the task group and CCL subcommittee, and tasks to be undertaken during the next 2-year period. The document includes both English and French-language versions of the report. (LMM)