The primary information resource on the World Wide Web for STAS is here .
Some summary information is provided below.
The goal of STAS is to improve interoperability among consumers and providers of scientific, technical, and related information using the Z39.50 protocol. The STAS Element Set supports identification and selection of data elements retrievable from scientific, technical, and related databases, using a Z39.50 Present Request. The current Z39.50 bib-1 Attribute Set contains Attributes primarily suitable for bibliographic searching. Since many scientific and technical databases also contain bibliographic data, the bib-1 Attribute Set supports access to a subset of their data and services. However, prior to the development of STAS, there was no standard way to refer to a large number of the non-bibliographic searchable and retrievable fields within scientific and technical databases.