Z39.50 and Voyager-to-Voyager configuration
At the National Library of Scotland we use the Voyager library management system supplied by the Ex Libris Group. Access to the Voyager system is available to search and retrieval systems using the z39.50 standard protocol and/or Ex Libris's proprietary Voyager-to-Voyager service. NLS is a member of CAIRNS (Co-operative Information Retrieval Network for Scotland).
Availability and conditions of use
NLS catalogues are always available, apart from approximately
22.00-22.10 GMT for routine maintenance. Please view the guidance notes on the use of
records in our catalogues before setting up your connection.
On this page
Z39.50 connection details
Our Voyager z39.50 server conforms to z39.50-1995 (Version 3) of the standard. Voyager supports a subset of attributes from the bib-1 attribute set, and uses codes from the bib-1 diagnostic set.
Please note: You may need to have the rules on your organisation's firewall adjusted to enable access to these hosts and ports.
| Database: | Main catalogue |
| Domain name: | z3950.nls.uk |
| Port: | 7290 |
| Database name: | voyager |
| Database: | Manuscripts |
| Domain name: | z3950.nls.uk |
| Port: | 7390 |
| Database name: | voyager |
| Database: | Scottish Bibliographies Online |
| Domain name: | z3950.nls.uk |
| Port: | 10190 |
| Database name: | voyager |
| Database: | Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation (BOSLIT) |
| Domain name: | z3950.nls.uk |
| Port: | 10290 |
| Database name: | voyager |
Z39.50 profiles supported
Z39.50-1995 (Version 3) of the standard. Voyager supports a subset of attributes from the bib-1 attribute set, and and uses codes from the bib-1 diagnostic set.
Z39.50 target information
The Voyager server supports the following services:
- initialisation
- search
- present
The Scan bit is on in the Voyager Init Response, but Voyager does not support Scan.
Initialisation service
Protocol version
- Z39.50-1995 (Version 3)
Options supported
- Search
- Present
Preferred message size
- Voyager will negotiate the client down to 16,000 bytes if requested size exceeds 16,000 bytes, and accept client proposal if it is less than 16,000 bytes.
Maximum record size
- Same as Preferred message size above.
ID authentication
- User id and password are not required.
Search service
Result set name
- Voyager only supports 'default'(case insensitive).
Database names (case insensitive)
- Use 'voyager'.
Element set names
- 'B' (brief) and 'F' (full) supported.
Query
- Voyager supports Type-1 only.
Attribute set ID
- Voyager supports Bib-1 only.
Operand
- The Result set ID (i.e., 'default') cannot be used in the Operand. Voyager does not support qualifying searches.
Operators supported
- AND
- OR
- AND-NOT
Record syntaxes
- MARC 21
- OPAC
Z39.50 use attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 1 | Personal name |
| 2 | Corporate name |
| 3 | Conference name |
| 4 | Title |
| 5 | Title series |
| 6 | Uniform title |
| 7 | ISBN |
| 8 | ISSN |
| 9 | LCCN |
| 12 | Local number (035 field) |
| 13 | Dewey classification |
| 16 | LC call number |
| 17 | NLM call number |
| 20 | Other call number |
| 21 | Subject heading |
| 25 | MeSH subject heading |
| 27 | LC subject heading |
| 31 | Date of publication |
| 33 | Title - key |
| 41 | Title - variant |
| 42 | Title - former |
| 43 | Title - abbreviated |
| 48 | Number - national bibliography |
| 50 | Number - government publication |
| 51 | Number - music publisher |
| 54 | Code - language |
| 55 | Code - geographic area |
| 56 | Code - institution |
| 57 | Name and title |
| 58 | Name geographic |
| 59 | Place of publication |
| 60 | CODEN |
| 63 | Note |
| 1002 | Name |
| 1003 | Author |
| 1004 | Author (personal name) |
| 1005 | Author (corporate name) |
| 1007 | Standard identifier |
| 1008 | LC children's subject |
| 1009 | Subject (personal name) |
| 1016 | Any (keyword) |
| 1018 | Name of publisher |
| 1024 | Cartographic math data |
| 1027 | Standard technical report number |
| 1032 | Electronic location and access |
| 1056 | Dissertation note |
| 1074 | Subject (name) |
| 1078 | Subject (title) |
| 1079 | Subject (topical) |
| 1185 | Credits/performers |
| 1209 | Electronic access |
Other use attribute information
Relation attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 3 | Equal |
Voyager accepts values other than '3', but does not regard them.
Position attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 1 | First in field |
| 3 | Any |
Structure attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 1 | Phrase |
Voyager accepts values other than '1', but does not regard them.
Truncation attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 1 | Right truncation |
| 100 | Do not truncate |
Completeness attributes supported
| Value | Description |
| 1 | Incomplete subfield |
Voyager accepts values other than '1', but does not regard them.
Required and default attributes
The Use attribute is required.
For the other attributes, if an attribute type and value are not supplied by the client, the following defaults apply:
| Relation | Equal (value=3) |
| Position | Any (value=3) |
| Structure | Phrase (value=1) |
| Truncation | Do not truncate (value=100) |
| Completeness | Incomplete subfield (value=1) |
Search term processing in Voyager system
Keywords (name, title, subject, note):
- Keyword search terms can appear anywhere in the field.
- If multiple words appear in the same search term, the search term will be processed as a phrase.
- If the words appear in separate operands (ANDed together) they can appear in different fields in the same record.
- Personal name keywords: A keyword search term can be the first, middle, or last name. If more than one name appears in the search term of a keyword search, the order is significant. Last name should precede first name.
- Keyword indexing does not include phrases that cross subfield boundaries. If the search term contains a phrase that may cross subfield boundaries (e.g., subject heading, LC call number, etc.), use a left-anchored (right-truncated) search. (In other words, Position attribute = 'first-in-field'; Truncation attribute = 'right truncation'.)
Phrase searches (name, title, subject, note):
- Phrase search terms can appear anywhere in the field.
- Phrase searches that include the 'First-in-field' Position attribute should begin with the first significant word in the field.
- Personal name phrase searches: The order in which the names appear in the search term is significant. In other words, the surname should appear first (with or without comma) in order to match against entry fields in Voyager indexes.
Number searches (ISBN, ISSN, LCCN, etc.):
- Use a hyphen in all ISSN search terms (e.g., 1234-5678).
- Do not include hyphens in ISBN or LCCN search terms.
- Use normalized format for LCCN search terms (i.e., include any prefix, spaces, or zero file). For example, LCCN 91-13 should be '91000013' in the search term.
Qualifying Searches:
- Voyager does not support searches against previous result sets.
Wild Card/Truncation:
- Voyager supports the questions mark ('?') as a truncation character.
Sort Order:
- Keyword searches:
- Records in keyword search result sets are in order by the Voyager control number (MARC field 001).
- Left-anchored searches:
- Records in left-anchored search result sets are sorted by the field being searched (e.g., title, subject, call number, etc.).
Search term length limitations:
- Search terms (after mapping from intersite syntax to the internal Voyager search system) must not exceed 255 characters.
Limitations of voyager server
- There is a limit of 10,000 records that you can retrieve in a result set.
- The server does not support the complete MARC 21 character set. Diacritics and many special characters are not encoded correctly. Diacritics and special characters are being converted to an proprietary Endeavor Latin-1 representation.
- You cannot search the authority files.
- When the Voyager server result set is a medium or a small set
(based on the size of result set in relation to large-set,
small-set, and medium-set number parameters in the Search Request)
the following three encoding problems can result:
- When records are expected in the Search Response (e.g., a medium set or a small set), the presentStatus is a '0' (success) instead of a '5' (failure).
- When a non-surrogate diagnostic record is returned instead of result set records in the Search Response, the value of numberOfRecordsReturned is a '0' instead of a '1'.
- The non-surrogate diagnostic record never contains an addInfo (which is mandatory in the standard). If these problems are making interworking with the Voyager server difficult, we suggest that you set the client small-set and medium-set number to zero and the large-set to one (making every set a large set) until Endeavor has corrected these server problems.
Voyager-to-Voyager configuration
Organisations that have implemented the Ex Libris Voyager system can use the Voyager-to-Voyager proprietary search protocol as an alternative or in conjunction with z39.50.
Please note: You may need to have the rules on your organisation's firewall adjusted to enable access to these hosts and ports.
| Database: | Main catalogue |
| Domain name: | nlsapp.nls.uk |
| Port: | 7200 |
| Database: | Manuscripts |
| Domain name: | nlsapp.nls.uk |
| Port: | 7300 |
| Database: | Scottish Bibliographies Online |
| Domain name: | nlsapp.nls.uk |
| Port: | 10100 |
| Database: | Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation (BOSLIT) |
| Domain name: | nlsapp.nls.uk |
| Port: | 10200 |
Contact us
If you have any questions, please contact Gill Hamilton or Graeme McLachlan:
Email: voyager@nls.uk
Tel: +44(0)131 623 3700
Fax: +44(0)131 623 3701
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh
EH1 1EW
Scotland, UK