BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF RESOURCE SHARING - UNION CATALOGS, DISTRIBUTED SEARCH, AND CROSS-DATABASE LINKAGE

EFFECTIVE RESOURCE SHARING PRESUPPOSES an infrastructure which permits users to locate materials of interest in both print and electonic for mats. Two approaches for providing this are union catalogs and Z39.50- based distributed search systems. The advantages and limitations of ea ch approach are considered, paying particular attention to a realistic assessment of Z39.50 implementations. This article argues that the tw o approaches should be considered complementary rather than competitiv e. Technologies to create linkage between the bibliographic apparatus of catalogs and abstracting and indexing databases and primary content in electronic form, such as the new Serial Item and Contribution Iden tifier (SICI) standard are also discussed as key elements in the infra structure to support resource sharing.