> I am getting confused about the objectives of SRW/SRU. I thought it was
> meant as a lightweight web-service based alternative to Z39.50,
> something that should be easy to implement for both servers and clients.

> I thought SRW/U was about search? If update becomes a part of the
> "standard", then will my SRW/U services be required to support it?
> Again, I think the addition of this operation diminishes the elegance
> of the protocol.

As Ralph and Matthew have said, this isn't part of SRW, it's another
service which can be used with SRW, but also could be used with OAI,
Z39.50 or any other retrieval protocol.

That said, Z39.50 does have an update mechanism, and there's a need for
such a service to be used in conjunction with SRW.

Given that no one has expressed any need for the URL mechanism, we'll
write it out of the current draft. :)

Rob

       ,'/:.          Dr Robert Sanderson ([log in to unmask])
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