CPS Systems, Inc., an Australian-headquartered company which established a U.S. office less than two years ago, has won a major contract to provide the libraries of the North Bay Cooperative Library System of California with a Z39.50 compliant simultaneous search engine that can utilize the existing OPAC environments whether or not they provide Z39.50 server capability. The company had earlier won a contract from the State of Maryland, but that contract did not include Z39.50 conformity.
Among the features of the system that CPS will install by the end of the year is a user interface which features a Web browser to facilitate searching, simultaneous searching against several automated library systems, checking of availability in the target systems ' circulation modules, patron initiated interlibrary loan requests, automatic placement of holds in a target library's circulation module, and the creation of temporary bibliographic records in the borrowing library's local system.
The hardware and software is considerably more expensive than the implementation of z39.50 alone, but the functionality is broader-at least until such time as automated library system vendors implement interlibrary loan modules which conform to ISO 10160 and 10161, the international interlibrary loan standards.
[Contact: CPS Systems, Inc., 6053 Hudson Road, Suite 180, Woodbury, MN 55125-1077; 612-737-6556; FAX 612-737-7113.]
