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X.400, one of the first OSI Application layer standards to be ratified, has generated considerable interest in the computer and telecommunications industry. Software vendors and network service providers are now marketing X.400‐based products. Message handling systems based on X.400 support interpersonal electronic mail services and also provide a generic mechanism for the exchange of information between computer systems. This ability to support information transfer between computer systems is the real contribution of X.400. Telecommunications based on this standard can be applied to library operations such as interlibrary loan, acquisitions and document delivery.

In September 1990, the U.S. Department of Education's Library Technology and Cooperation Grants Program awarded a three‐year grant to the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), an agency of the Florida State University System, to develop software adhering to the ANSI Z39.50 Information Retrieval protocol standard. The Z39.50 software was to operate over the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) communications protocols and be integrated with FCLA's NOTIS system, which is shared by all nine state universities in Florida. In order to test the correctness of its Z39.50 software, FCLA sought out other library software developers who would be willing to develop Z39.50 systems of their own. As part of this process, FCLA helped to found the Z39.50 Implementors' Group (ZIG), which has since gone on to improve the standard and promote Z39.50 implementations throughout much of the North American library systems marketplace. Early on in the project, it became apparent that TCP/IP would be a more heavily used communications vehicle for Z39.50 messages than OSI. FCLA expanded its design to include TCP/IP and, by the end of the grant in September 1993, will have a working Z39.50 system that can communicate over both OSI and TCP/IP networks.

This special “theme” issue of Library Hi Tech is devoted to Open Systems Interconnection. The editor is Ray Denenberg, of the Library of Congress. Eleven articles cover the basic OSI platform, applications, support areas, and implementation. The basic OSI platform consists of protocols for the seven layers, including support for file transfer and message handling. Three articles describe network applications and the corresponding OSI services and protocols. “Information Retrieval as a Network Application” describes the ANSI Z39.50 protocol. Another article describes the interlibrary loan protocol, which incorporates the sequences of messages that occur in distributed interlibrary loan transactions. An article about electronic data interchange describes the edi conceptual model being developed by ISO, and its relationship to OSI. Network management and directory services are two of the most important OSI support areas; individual articles cover these two topics. Implementation topics include profiles, testing, and products.

Details have now been released of the six research efforts, developing new technologies for digital libraries, which are being funded for four years by the US government. The Digital Library Project's focus is ‘dramatically to advance the means to collect, store, and organise information in digital forms, and make it available for searching, retrieval and processing via communication networks — all in user‐friendly ways.’