Internet, Interoperability and Standards – Filling the Gaps

Janifer Gatenby, European Product Manager, Geac Computers

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

With major changes in electronic communications, the main focus of standardisation in the library arena has moved from that of supporting efficiency to allowing library users to access external resources and allowing remote access to library resources. There is a new emphasis on interoperability at a deeper level among library systems and on a grander scale within the environment of electronic commerce. The potential of full inter-operability is examined along with its likely impact. Some of the gaps in current standards are examined, with a focus on information retrieval, together with the process for filling those gaps, the interoperation of standards and overlapping standards.