Grottocenter
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Open Database License (ODbL).
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The “Bulletin Bibliographique Spéléologique / Speleo Abstract” has existed for over 50 years and aims to share information on publications related to karst worldwide.
Since 2020, the BBS has been gradually ported to Grottocenter, and today over 120,000 document analyses are accessible. We invite documentation centers that use library management software to join this project, aimed at organizing the automatic sharing of information using widely available tools.
Our goal is to extend this exchange by archiving all documentation on the underground environment with tools that allow automatic integration.
The ultimate goal: To build a network of documentation centers that, together, provide access to all documents in digital form.
Our Z39.50 server allows external systems to query and retrieve our bibliographic records using standard Z39.50 clients.
z3950.grottocenter.org2211unimarc, marc21, unimarc-it, marc21-it@attr 1=4@attr 1=1003@attr 1=31@attr 1=1018@attr 1=7@attr 1=8@attr 1=8@attr 1=1032$ yaz-client Z> open z3950.grottocenter.org:9999/marc21 Connecting...OK. Z> find @attrset Bib-1 @attr 1=4 "cave exploration" Sent searchRequest. Received SearchResponse. Search was a success. Number of hits: 42 Z> show 1 [Displays UNIMARC record]
Z39.50 is an international standard client-server protocol for searching and retrieving information from remote databases. It's particularly popular in library and information systems, enabling interoperability between different systems regardless of their underlying software or database structure.
Our Z39.50 server provides access to our bibliographic database of karst and cave-related publications, allowing library management systems to directly integrate our metadata into their catalogues without manual copying.
Technical details: The server runs on port 9999 and supports standard BIB-1 attribute sets for queries, with records available in MARC21 format.
Z39.50 was developed to overcome the problems associated with multiple database searching using different interfaces and query languages. It facilitates the searching and retrieval of information in a distributed networked environment.
The protocol defines:
Z39.50 is natively supported by most major Library Management Systems (LMS) and Integrated Library Systems (ILS), allowing for seamless integration with our server: