The Search and Retrieve via URL (SRU) 2.0 has been approved as a standard by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). SRU is the web-based successor to Z39.50.
Functionality supported by SRU includes defining a standard query grammar for complex interoperable searching, the ability to specify the format of the documents returned and the mime-type of the response. SRU includes a capability to allow client software to query the server for functionality and a complex description of the databases being searched.
OCLC Research has been actively involved in the development of an appropriate successor to Z39.50 for over a decade. This work is part of OCLC's Infrastructure and Standards Support theme. Work on SRU in OASIS began in June of 2007 and was progressed entirely by teleconference.
OASIS is a not-for-profit consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society. It was founded in 1993 as 'SGML Open.'
