ANSI/ASC X12: see Electronic Document Interchange (EDI)
ANSI/NISO: see NISO
ASN.1: Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1 ISO 8824 and 8825) ASN.1 is a flexible, technical language for specifying data structures. Together with its companion Basic Encoding Rules (ISO 8825) it provides a means of specifying, encoding & decoding messages (Protocol Data Units or PDUs) to be transmitted. ASN.1 prescribes how information units can be taken from the local system's encoding scheme (called an Abstract Syntax), transformed to a mutually agreed upon (by the systems in question) encoding scheme (called the Transfer Syntax) for transmission to the destination system. There it is retransformed into that local Abstract Syntax.
The semantics built into ASN.1 are very general - Boolean, string, number, plus some OSI concepts. Mappings are defined by the user. There are no constraints on structuring. The encoding of an object described by ASN.1/BER (ISO 8824-8825) uses a Tag-Length-Value syntax. Tags are encoded as hex strings that get mapped to program data elements & structures by an ASN.1-generated parser. Lengths are integers. Values may be encoded as built-in types (e.g., integer, Boolean, string) or as user-defined types.
CIMI: An acronym and logotype for all the efforts on behalf of the Computer Interchange of Museum Information undertaken by the Museum Computer Network to support the development and implementation of standards for automated recording and retrieval of museum information.
CIMI Committee: the group funded by NEH June 1990- June 1992 that was constituted, produced work, and was dissolved, consisting of the following members: Joan Bacharach, US National Parks Service; David Bearman, Archives and Museum Informatics, Project Director; Lynn Cox, Museum Computer Network; Gail Eagen, Canadian Heritage Information Network; Julian Humphries, Association for Systematic Collections; Ron Kley, Association for Living Historical Farms and Agricultural Museums; Sarah Lawrence, Argus User Group; Kathleen McDonnell, Conservation Information Network; Patricia Gordon Michael, American Association for State and Local History; John Perkins, Project Manager; Andrew Roberts, International Council of Museums Documentation Committee, Museum Documentation Association; Margaretta Sander, Art Information Task Force; Lenore Sarasan, Willoughby Associates; Greg Tschann, American Association of Museums; Alan Tucker, Research Libraries Group Inc.
CIMI Content Data Standards: content specifications (eg meaning of data elements, content standards used, standards referenced,
CIMI Interchange Protocols: is a suite of communications protocols, and data representation schemes to support museum interchange needs. It employs preexisting and standard methods including ISO 10162/10163 for information retrieval, EDI for business transactions, FTAM for file transfer, X.400/500 for messaging, ISO 9040/41 for terminal access. Transport services can be provided by OSI or an appropriate alternate such as TCP/IP. Database building, reference file construction, and the interchange of collections management data can be handled by ISO 2709, ISO 8879 SGML, ISO 8824 ASN.1, and ISO 9735 EDIFACT.
CIMI Management Committee: a committee appointed by the MCN board in November 1992 to advise, manage, and direct the ongoing Museum Computer Network efforts in the interchange of museum information.(members?).
CIMI Standards Framework: the interchange protocols, interchange formats, and other standards such as lower level network and telecommunications building blocks and content data standards that provide the technical basis for museum information interchange.
CIMI Task Group: purpose-directed subsets of the museum profession that work directly with CIMI to develop museum information interchange in a system-independent way.
Consensus: implies agreement reached by more than a simple majority but less than unanimity.
CNI: Coalition For Networked Information
EBCDIC: a proprietary IBM data encoding scheme for text characters.
ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI): EDI is the exchange of routine business transactions in machine readable format. It covers many areas including, ordering, pricing, quoting, backordering, shipping, receiving, planning purchases as well as invoicing and payments. There are two competing standards: EDIFACT and ASC X12. ASC X12 and EDIFACT consider their format differences to be minor and are pursuing reconciliation.
The X12 series consists of a number of application standards called transaction set standards that are dependent on a set of foundation standards defining the data elements, segments, control structures and transmission envelope. The structure that holds the data being interchanged is called the interchange envelope itself specified as ANSI X12.5 standard. It provides the envelope of control segments that allow exchanging systems to acknowledge sending and receipt between systems. The interchange envelope is carried by communications sessions protocols that conform to the lower 5 layers of the ISO reference model ISO 7498-1984.
EDIFACT: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe EDI for Administration, Commerce, and Transport. The standard is specified as ISO 9735 Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport 1988 - Application Level Syntaxes Rules. This standard is in competition with ASC X.12 but there is an international push to harmonize the two approaches.
FTAM: ISO 8571 File Transfer, Access, and Management (FTAM) provides a full service environment for the transfer of whole or partial files, different file types (flat or hierarchical structured), and file manipulations such as file access (eg locate, erase,) and file management (eg create, delete, read, write). Two systems do not need to share the same internal file structure but communicate through a neutral structure, the virtual file. FTAM allows document types to be defined - default ones are unstructured text, unstructured binary, sequential text. Data representation is not an issue since communications services such as X.400 handle data transparently.
Hypermedia/Time-based Document Structuring Language: see HyTime
HyTime: Hypermedia/Time-based Document Structuring Language ISO 10744: Based on SGML, HyTime extends the concept of markup of single documents to those of multiple data objects or documents with multiple parts. Hypertext documents and multi-media presentations are two examples. Using HyTime to describe the structure of the documents and their relationship to each other (and other documents) allows for interchange, non sequential browsing, version control, retrieval access, and cooperative authoring over time and distance.
IEC/ISO/JTC1: see Joint Technical Committee 1
Interchange Service: a detailed specification of the structure and meaning of the information being interchanged and the purposes of the interchange. If this includes agreement on the consecutive processes of an interchange transaction, particularly in the formal OSI usage, it is called a Service Definition. Interchange Service is used in the CIMI context to distinguish it from the formal OSI concept of Service Definition.
Interchange format: a formal, ordered expression of the nature and structure of data elements, relationships between data elements, and metadata information needed as part of an Interchange Service. An interchange format may be used by one or more Interchange Services. More than one interchange format may be used in a single Interchange Service.
Information Retrieval Service: ISO 10162/63 or NISO Z39.50, Information Retrieval Service Definitions and Protocol Specifications for Library Applications allows an application on one computer to query a database on another. The protocol specifies the inter-system procedures and structures for submission of a search request in the native query syntax of the originating system to be responded to by the receiving system and have hits passed back to the originating system for display in its native format. To date, service definitions have been written for catalog and authority databases and definitions for others are in development.
ISO TC46: ISO TC46 is the international forum for information and documentation standards. The work covers an enormous range including the description of documents, transliteration of non- Roman alphabets, and computer applications including interchange formats. TC46 has the participation of national standards and implementation agencies in its work and all of these contribute to its domain.
ISO 2709: ISO 2709-1981 and its US equivalent ANSI Z39.2-1985 are representative of bibliographic and information (textual, descriptive data) interchange formats. ISO 2709 is specifically intended for communications between data processing systems, not a processing format within systems.
An ISO 2709 conformant record is a linear series of characters organized in a highly structured way reflecting the primary use of allowing information to be encoded sequentially on magnetic tape. A record contains both the data for transmission and information about the data, its structure and organization for the data processing system to use. Each record begins with a fixed length record label that allows for a description of how long the record is, the status (ie new, amended etc.), the location of the beginning of the data to be transmitted, and information about the record directory section that follows next. The variable length record directory consists of fixed length units which identify each field (element of information) by a three character identifier or tag (practice dictates a three character identifier but the original standard allowed implementations to specify the identifier length) and shows where each data field begins and how long it is. The directory is variable length since there can be any different number of fields in a record. Following the directory are the data fields. There will be a data field corresponding to each field named in the directory for a given record. Each record is terminated by a record separator followed by another record if necessary.
Joint Technical Committee 1 of ISO and IEC (JTC1), was formed to address areas of overlapping interest between IEC and ISO. It is responsible for CD-ROM (SC23), OSI (SC16), Office Document Interchange Formats and Standard Generalized Markup Language, SGML (SC18), telecommunications and ISDN or Integrated Services Digital Network (SC6), as well as multimedia and hypermedia (SC29).
JTC1/SC18 (Text and Office Systems) has developed the standard ISO 8879 for Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SGML allows the definition of the logical structure of printed documents independent of their published appearance and is widely used by the publishing industry for document formatting and interchange. Those interested in exchanging hypertext have also been examining SGML for its potential usefulness.
Standards for the coded representation of still and moving images are being developed by JTC1/SC29. JTC1/SC29/WG10 , commonly known as JPEG, is concerned with the digital coding of still images. This working group has proposed a draft standard for the coding of images in a compressed form along with the necessary instructions for decompression that is gaining wide acceptance. The draft JPEG standard solves both problems of coding and creating manageable file sizes without information loss which in turn makes it possible for images to be handled and interchanged in similar ways to textual information in digital form.
SC29/WG11 is dealing with moving picture encoding (MPEG) and WG12 with multi and hypermedia issues.
Mapping: The process of relating or converting data (elements) and their relationships in one format or conceptual schema to another.
MARC: MARC is the most significant implementation of the ISO 2709/NISO Z39.2 standard. The name MARC, an acronym for machine-readable cataloguing, originally described a single format developed by the US Library of Congress beginning in the mid-1960's. There are now numerous bibliographic and non-bibliographic MARC formats used in over 20 countries. National content standards differ somewhat so the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has implemented UNIMARC as bridge between them. The four USMARC communications formats now function as a standard for the representation and exchange of bibliographic, authority, holdings and "community" data in machine-readable form in the U.S.. The scope of the bibliographic component includes books, archival material, computer files, maps, music, visual materials (including three-dimensional objects), and serials. Because of strong links between libraries, archives, collections of visual materials (all use USMARC) and because it can be used for a basic description of three-dimensional objects, some have proposed the museum community adopt a "MARC for museums" format.(fn AU report and Deirdre's study).
METADATA: Information about data. In interchange it is the additional information about the content that is necessary for a receiving system to understand and intelligently deal with the exchange.
NISO: NISO is the ANSI accredited developer of standards for libraries, information organizations, A&I services, publishers and library equipment manufacturers. NISO publishes the Z series of ANSI standards including the Z39.2 Bibliographic Information Interchange and Z39.50 Information Retrieval Service Definition and Protocol Specifications for Library Applications. Z39.2 was developed after and from the MARC format and is an example of a professional standard being adopted as a national one. Now MARC is described as an implementation of Z39.2 and is considered only one in a suite of standards necessary for bibliographic information interchange.
Openness: a concept that encompasses representation from the broadest spectrum possible of the particular community represented, adequate record keeping and publication of minutes, no financial barriers to participation, or restrictions on participation based on membership in an organization or technical qualifications.
OSE: Open Systems Environment is a conceptual model developed by IEEE and NIST to extend the concept of OSI from connecting computers to allow them to interwork, to allowing application portability between platforms. It incorporates issues of user interface, data management, data interchange, communications, and operating systems.
OSI: Open Systems Interconnection. An ISO set of standards specified in the base standard ISO 7498 1-4 which is the basic description of the seven layered model for effecting open communications between two computer systems.
Registration authorities: coordinate efforts and ensure unambiguous specification of interchange services and formats. (ref Annex C JTC1 SC21 N4903:1990 p 45).
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) ISO 8879-1986: SGML began (and is still primarily used) in the publishing industry to describe how text should be formatted, printed, processed or laid out in a system independent way. ISO 8879 defines two parts, a Prologue and a Document Instance. The prologue contains the SGML declaration and a document type declaration (DTD); the document instance is the content. The SGML Declaration specifies facts about the characters set, the delimiter codes, and the length of identifiers. The DTD contains the description of elements the description of attributes and entities which are named parts of a document. As is the case for other international standards, SGML provides a generalized structure that is given meaning by implementation standards.
Task Group: purpose-directed subsets of the profession that work directly with CIMI staff and the CIMI committee to develop museum information interchange in a system-independent way (ref Report of CIMI Meeting 1, Sec 3.2 p 5).
UN/EDIFACT, see EDI
UNISIST REFERENCE MANUAL: The UNISIST Reference Manual is an implementation of ISO 2709 conceived by its creators as a system for the communication of abstracting and indexing (A&I) material. The Conservation Information Network's bibliographic database (which is closer to an A&I service than a library service) conforms to the UNISIST Reference Manual content standard.
Z39.2: see ISO 2709
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