As promised, here is a brief report back on my question
about developments in public library authorities on compliance
with Z39.50 protocols.
Many thanks for all the feedback and leads provided by various people.

As far as I can tell, there is currently NO authority which claims
Z39.50 compliance for their catalogue at the time of writing.  There are
many academic sites within the UK, from universities to FE colleges,
and also many public sites in other English-speaking countries
(Canada, Australia and of course United States).  
This comparative backwardness in the UK seems likely to correct itself in
the next few months, as many contacts I have made have advanced plans.

Projects and plans for Z39.50 seem to fall into 2 main categories:

1. Authorities which are installing (or about to) new library management
systems, which specifically include the ability to publish a
compliant OPAC on the Internet.  How soon these become available
depends upon the priority given to them by the authority.

2. 'Clumps' of authorities which are working together to develop mutual
access to each other's holdings, primarily for interlending purposes.

Examples of (1) and their hoped-for dates of going 'live' on their OPAC are:

Derbyshire/Derby City Nov/Dec 1999
Lancashire 'sometime in 2000'
Hillingdon August
Westminster 'end of year'
Edinburgh ?

Examples of (2) with notes on the state of their development:

'Eastern' Clump (Cambs, Suffolk, Essex et al.):  they have a Wolfson bid
in and if awarded will work with existing system systems suppliers to
establish an interlending network.

'Riding' (Yorkshire public and academic sites + BL) :  Leeds City is the only
public authority involved (Leeds Univ. is already a useful Z39.50 target), where
development is still ongoing.  I am not certain whether Leeds public will be  
accessible to authorities outside the clump.

GALA (Greenwich, Southwark, Lewisham):  project to provide access in
SE London to each other's catalogue.  Most technical problems are resolved;
now dealing with design features.

SEREN (Wales):  several FE and other libraries in an interlending agreement;
suggested that public sites may become involved but not at present.

Other clumps I have heard of but with no details include East Dunbarton
(CAIRNS) and a South Coast consortium (Sussexes, Surrey et al.), and
the comment "...and of course LASER are doing something"

Any further information on any of the above I would be most grateful for.

The position in Nottinghamshire is slightly different, in that we are not involved
(as yet) in a clump but are not imminently migrating to a new system either.
Our system supplier has provided a web-based version of OPAC which can work
with our existing 10-year old system.  This is technically up-and-running as a
web site but is currently sheltered behind our authority firewall.  Once we have
resolved various operational and design issues we plan to publish the URL,
hopefully by early-mid August.

If anyone has any comments, corrections or queries on all the above, please
let me know.

Nick London
Nottinghamshire Libraries
Tel: 0115 985 4205

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