Configuration of the options for applying the Z39.50 protocol to the processes of data capture

Three options are presented:

Servers
Defines the list of servers that is presented in the selection menu on the page of searching for information. The following fields should be provided:

• Name of the server, which is presented in the menu of selection of Z39.50 servers
• URL to use for its location
• Port that is enabled for access to the server by Z39.50 protocol
• Name of the database that is to be accessed on the remote server

The database of servers is stored in the folder bases under the name servers

Conversion format

The data from Z39.50 servers is always presented in MARC format. This option allows the definition of a conversion format by mapping between the MARC fields of the Z39.50 database and the corresponding fields in the local database.

The conversion table comprises two columns:

• The first column contains the label of the field that will receive the data in the local database
• The second column contains the field in the MARC record for transferring the data to the local database

The conversion happens at the time of transferring a record to the local database.

The conversion formats are stored in the folder /bases/cnv/. The list of existing formats is called z3950.cnv

Conversion table for characters from MARC-8 to ANSI

Z39.50 servers represent special characters using MARC-8 coding, which uses two positions for each diacritic. This table transforms the MARC-8 coding (two characters for each diacritic) to ANSI (one charater for each diacritic).

If in a later search against a Z39.50 server combinations of characters appear which do not match the corresponding language, it is necessary to include that combination in the conversion table so that the corresponding character will be represented correctly. 

The conversion table for diacritics is stored in the folder bases under the name marc8-to-ansi.tab