The Z39.50 information retrieval standard

Although the Z39.50 standard is not being widely adopted by the Internet community, it is a mature standard which represents over two decades of collaboration between experts in the information retrieval community. The rapid growth in networked computers has motivated the development of this standard from its origins in the bibliographic domain to becoming a general-purpose information retrieval standard. The article provides an insight into what may at first sight seem to be an overly complex standard and explains some of the main concepts that provide potential for making the protocol a key part of the future of information retrieval. The focus is from a computer networking perspective, and a deliberate attempt has been made not to reference the work in terms of its current popularity amongst the librarian community.