jafer Z39.50 is a computer-to-computer communications protocol designed to support searching and retrieval of information, full-text documents, bibliographic data, images and multimedia in a distributed network environment. Based on client/server architecture and operating over the Internet, the Z39.50 protocol is supporting an increasing number of applications (William Moen, the ANSI/NISO Z39.50 Protocol1). The JISC notes, however, that: 'Z39.50 is of considerable vintage:. and a heavy weight solution which is unattractive to some developers (JISC Circular 5/99). Z39.50 implementations are hampered by the lack of powerful, easy to use, Z39.50-based tools and servers and the need for a high degree of development time. Building on the extensive Z39.50 experience of the Oxford University Libraries Automation Service, the JAFER Toolkit Project will produce a lightweight Z39.50 toolkit specifically aimed for creating Internet based learning and teaching packages. Project start date: 2001-01-01. Project end date: 2002-01-31. (Excerpt from this source) 7 35 0.4 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/sites/all/datacharts/hc/13477-chart-wp.html