ILL ISO and NCIP protocals and III

["McClellan Jr., Michael C." <MMcClellan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I would like to talk with someone off list regarding the concepts in the
message I have copied and pasted into this one.  In Minnesota there is a
state funded ILL like concept combining public and academic libraries within
the state.  Patrons can search and then request through one interface.  The
searching portion is done and now the requesting piece is coming on line.
The software being used is Fretwell-Downing's VDX and I'm interested in
talking with any III system that already is working with this software along
with any insights as to how far along III is in implementing the protocols
listed below so we could work around the VDX software.  I hope this makes
sense and that I have conceptualized this correctly.  It's new to most of us
here.

Thanks
Michael McClellan
Circulation Department Supervisor
Minneapolis Public Library
250 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, MN  55401
612-630-6042


The ISO 10160/10161 protocol allows your ILL system to "talk" to another 
ILL system. If your ILL system supports the ISO messaging, you could use 
III to manage your ILL requests rather than having to use 
Fretwell-Downing's VDX. Through ISO the III system could send and receive 
requests from VDX and other ISO based ILL systems. There are 20 ISO 
messages that your vendor needs to support for effective ISO ILL 
transactions with other vendor products. There are three "roles" within the 
ISO protocol. Your vendor needs to support the requestor and responder 
roles. This allows you to both send and receive requests. Your vendor has 
the information pertaining to the protocol so should be able to give you 
answers to this. There is a document on the ILL Protocol Implementers Group 
website that gives information for each vendor as of April 2001. Here's the 
link: http://www.arl.org/access/naildd/ipig/res/ipig9801-stat-test.shtml

The ISO messages are displayed at the bottom of the page with links to the 
vendors and their level of testing.

The other protocol you're probably interested in is the NISO Circulation 
Interchange Protocol (NCIP). This protocol includes various functionality 
including the ability to use an interlibrary loan system like VDX to manage 
your ILL requests and have a link via NCIP to the III circulation system. 
This protocol is newer that ISO but has been faster in coming to 
development. You can ask your vendor whether they've had any successful 
demonstrations of NCIP implementation between the III circulation module 
and other ILL systems - if so, which ILL systems? Ask the vendor what their 
priorities are for implementing NCIP and what functionality will be coming 
with this. NCIP must be used by both the ILS system and the ILL system 
being used and testing would have needed to be done.