# Internet Client Search Freeware

Eliot Christian (echristi@usgs.gov)
Sat, 04 Nov 1995 08:29:23 -0500

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    Message-Id: <9511041408.AA15603@mocha.bunyip.com>

    Date: Sat, 04 Nov 1995 08:29:23 -0500

    To: echristi@isdmnl.wr.usgs.gov

    From: Eliot Christian <echristi@usgs.gov>

    Subject: Internet Client Search Freeware

(NOTE: This message is posted to lists that may have overlapping membership.
Please accept my apologies if you have receive it more than once. If you
wish to see all future announcements related to Internet client search
freeware, please let me know to add your name to the listserve being
established on this topic by the Library of Congress.)

After resolving the correct wording in the copyright notice, we are back
online with the alpha release of freeware intended to handle World Wide Web
client searching. This software uses the standard search protocol known in
the U.S. as ANSI Z39.50, version 3, and internationally as ISO 10163. This
initial freeware is constructed as an add-on to the Netscape WWW browser
(version 1.1N) in Windows (Windows 3.11, Windows95, and Windows NT). It also
works with Netscape 2.0B1 under Windows95.

Using Microsoft's OLE (object linking and embedding), this software is
invoked within the WWW browser in response to a URL that refers to a
supported search protocol (the software registers the protocols "wais",
"z3950r", "z3950s", and "search"). The software uses the computer to
computer Z39.50 protocol to actually conduct the search, but it produces a
user interface by constructing HTML forms on the local disk drive.

In anticipation of servers now becoming available for geospatial searching,
the alpha software helps the user to designate spatial coordinates (decimal
latitude/longitude value) as search criteria. A geospatial server conforming
to the GEO Profile of Z39.50 is under construction by the Clearinghouse for
Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval.

Please bear in mind that this software is not yet a fully developed product.
The primary developer is Jeff Gelbard <jgelbard@cs.umass.edu>, subcontracted
through the University of Massachusettes, Center for Intelligent Information
Retrieval (CIIR), which has a development contract with the U.S. Defense
Technical Information Center (DTIC).

The Z39.50 protocol stack code is the property of Ameritech but is being
made available in this product for individual use at no charge. (If you wish
to license the Z39.50 protocol stack code for use in a commerial product,
contact David Nicosia <nicosia@als.ameritech.com>.) Except for the Z39.50
protocol software, all source code is being placed in the public domain.

You can fetch the executable software (search.zip), readme.tx, and source
files (srch_src.zip) by anonymous FTP to host www.usgs.gov, in the directory
/pub/gils/ciir/dtic_a02.

Eliot Christian, US Geological Survey, 802 National Center, Reston VA 22092
echristi@usgs.gov Office 703-648-7245 FAX 703-648-7069 Home 703-476-6134

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