SOAP'n'REST, cf. SRW'n'SRU

The webservice developer community has for some time been debating the relative strengths and weakness of SOAP based webservices compared to the REST approach (see the article Roots of the REST/SOAP Debate for one of many discussions on this topic, or alternatively this useful blog: SOAP vs. REST. This Second Generation Web Services article is also a useful starting point, along with the follow up article on REST and the Real World.

There also seems to be an almost parallel debating going on in the digital library world, (though lagging the SOAP vs. REST debate perhaps?), as described in Search and Retrieval in The European Library.

The two challengers represent different approaches to online search and retrival. In one corner, the SOAP contender is Search and Retrieve via the Web (SRW) and in the other the Search and Retrieve URL Service (SRU)

Developers are mindful of both approaches, though, as the OCLC Online Computer Library Center demonstrates...