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As part of our continued effort to increase the convenience of access to the archive, we have developed a new interface to the JSTOR Search Engine. This interface, called the JSTOR XML Gateway, was created to better facilitate metasearching, which is also known as "federated searching" or "cross-database searching". As some of our participating institutions have chosen to implement a metasearch engine for their users, we recognized the need to provide both a stable, standardized method for querying the JSTOR archive and also a manner of returning results that could be easily utilized by a metasearch program. To accomplish this, we have chosen the Search and Retrieve URL (SRU) Service as the basis for the JSTOR XML Gateway.
The SRU Service is a Web Services-based protocol for querying databases and returning search results. Currently under review as a part of the National Information Standards Organization's Metasearch Initiative, SRU incorporates elements of the Z39.50 protocol for Information Retrieval. The JSTOR XML Gateway was designed using SRW/U Open Source Software, developed by Online Computer Library Center Research, as a basis for implementation.
The SRU Service uses the Common Query Language (CQL) as the format for submitting search queries. Although CQL is a formal language for representing queries to information retrieval systems, it has been designed to be human-readable and writable. It allows for both very simple queries as well as complex, powerful queries involving Boolean operators, nesting, etc. The search results are returned as XML records in Dublin Core format and are listed in order of relevancy ranking. By providing the search results in XML (short for eXtensible Markup Language), the JSTOR XML Gateway transfers article metadata in a standard format to the metasearch engine for display to the user. To learn more about SRU and the related protocol of Search and Retrieve Web Service (SRW), please visit:
Organizations and vendors wishing to use the JSTOR XML Gateway in conjunction with a federated search engine must sign a Metasearch Agreement. Please contact JSTOR User Services at support@jstor.org with any questions.
If you have reviewed and are ready to sign the agreement, please print and send one signed copy of JSTOR Metasearch Agreement to the JSTOR New York Office:
Upon receipt of the agreement, JSTOR will send a copy of the JSTOR XML Gateway Usage Guide and will be happy to answer questions about its implementation.
For a list of our current partners, please see Metasearch Partner Contact Information.
Last updated on September 8, 2006
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