Adam writes: "The ZING [1] Initiative (Z39.50 International Next Generation), under the auspices of the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency [2] at the Library of Congress, is pleased to announce Version 1.0 of SRW and CQL. SRW ("Search/Retrieve for the Web") is a web-service-based protocol which aims to integrate access across networked resources, and to promote interoperability between distributed databases by providing a common platform. SRW features both SOAP and URL-based access mechanisms (SRW and SRU respectively) to provide for a wide range of possible clients. It uses CQL, the Common Query Language, which provides a powerful yet intuitive means of formulating searches."
Links:
[1] http://www.loc.gov/zing/
[2] http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency/