NCIP in VDX: Features

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Benefits of NCIP in VDX
John Bodfish Senior Technical Designer
VUGANZ September 18, 2006
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NCIP Review

• NCIP is the NISO Circulation Interchange
  Protocol, issued in 2002.
• Designed to support Circulation/Interlibrary Loan
  interaction (amongst other areas).
• Consists of two parts
• Protocol that specifies data structures, services
  and messages
• Implementation Profile 1 which specifies XML for
  message encoding, UNICODE for character encoding,
  etc.
• The standard looks to Application Profiles (such
  as the Circ/ILL profiles implemented in VDX) to
  specify what services and options are used by a
  specific application.

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Current workflow
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NCIP workflow
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Incoming Request
Supplying Library
Requesting Library
Circulation System
If an item is on the shelf a hold is placed on it
and a Will Supply response is sent to the
requesting library. If an item will be available
before the expiry date a hold is placed on it and
a Hold-placed response is sent. If none of the
matching items will be available before the
expiry date a Retry Request response is
sent. If no matching items exist an Unavailable
reply is sent.
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Automation Benefits

• VDX locates available copies automatically.
• VDX notifies the requester that you will or wont
  be supplying the item
• Your peers benefit from faster response times.
• Round-the-clock operation unattended by staff.

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The Role of DocFind Responder

• VDX attempts to locate a matching title in the
  local catalog using Z39.50.
• Searches are done using standard numbers such as
  ISBN, UPC, ANBN, BN, LCCN, OCLC and other system
  control numbers.
• Therefore its worthwhile to have those fields
  indexed and searchable by your Z39.50 server.

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Ship
Requesting Library
Supplying Library
Circulation System
Available items are retrieved from the shelf and
routed to the ILL desk (because the pick list has
that as the destination). On-loan items are
routed to the ILL desk by the circ system when
returned by borrowers.
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Automation Benefits

• VDX lets your circulation system calculate
• loan periods, which may vary by
• item type, e.g. printed versus audio-visual
  materials, or
• requesting library.
• due dates, automatically accounting for
• holidays, semester calendar, etc.
• reserves placed on specific items.

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Receive
Supplying Library
Requesting Library
Circulation System
You can use the lenders barcode, assign a
temporary one, or the circ system can create one
automatically, depending on the capabilities of
your circulation system. Your circulation system
will be given a due date derived from the
lenders due date.
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Automation Benefits

• Temporary bibliographic record is created with
  whatever data is in the request.
• Temporary item record is created with the items
  medium type (e.g. book, audio tape, etc.)
• The item is put on hold for the user so that the
  user will be notified in whatever fashion is
  usual for local holds.

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Return
Supplying Library
Requesting Library
Circulation System
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Automation Benefits

• Assurance that items are discharged from local
  users account.

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Check In
Requesting Library
Supplying Library
Circulation System
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Automation Benefits

• Elimination of duplicate work
• Staff dont have to check items in to both VDX
  and your circulation system.

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Renew
Supplying Library
Requesting Library
Circulation System
Circulation System
The requesting librarys VDX uses the suppliers
new due date as the basis for the due date given
the circ system, which it adjusts exactly as it
did when the item was first received.
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Automation Benefits

• Suppliers circulation system can
• determine renewability based on current
  requirements, e.g. local holds and reservations,
  and
• determine loan period and renewal due date as
  before during the Ship action.
• Round-the-clock operation unattended by staff.

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Cancel
Requesting Library
Supplying Library
Circulation System
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Automation Benefits

• Round-the-clock operation unattended by staff.

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Request Status
Requesting Library ZPortal
Circulation System
ZPortal invokes the Lookup Item service for
transactions where the item has been received but
not yet returned. Such items will now indiciate
they are Available for Pickup if the user has
not yet picked them up from the hold shelf.
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Automation Benefits

• Truer information for the user because ZPortal
  now knows whether the user has checked the item
  out or not yet picked it up.
• Round-the-clock operation unattended by staff.

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NCIP Automation Requesting Libraries

• When receiving
• Creates temporary bibliographic item records.
• Puts the item on hold for the patron.
• When patron checks their requests
• Checks local circ status to distinguish items on
  the hold shelf from items theyve checked out.
• When patron requests a renewal
• Automatically updates circ with new due date if
  lender agrees to the renewal request.
• When returning
• Ensures the item is discharged.

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NCIP Automation Supplying Libraries

• When requests arrive
• Locates available copies and places holds on
  them, so the circ systems pick list includes
  these items.
• When shipping
• Checks items out due date assigned by circ
  system.
• When renewal requests arrive
• Tries the renewal in the circ system, so local
  circ rules control whether the renewal is
  granted, and if so what the new due date is.
• When requests are cancelled
• Cancels the hold in the local circ system.

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Note These Are Benefits of VDX

• Your library must be using VDX for you to benefit
  from these NCIP features.
• VDX is invoking NCIP services directly with your
  librarys circulation system.
• VDX does not invoke NCIP services for you at the
  peer library.
• Therefore it doesnt matter whether the peer
  library thats requesting from you or lending
  to you is using VDX you still get the benefits
  even if they dont. ?

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VDX is the Initiator

• All NCIP messaging is initiated by VDX rather
  than by the circulation system because at this
  time all NCIP circulation implementations are
  being built to respond to NCIP messages rather
  than initiate them.

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And Its Simple

• Screen changes
• Added item barcode on Ship Receive screens
• Configuration
• Create a one or more Naming Authorities and add
  IDs for your VDX locations.
• Define the NCIP Responder (e.g. network address)
  and link its into the locations it serves.
• Select which set of services to use.
• Enter pseudo-user barcodes for your peer
  libraries.

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NCIP Authentication

• Patron authentication against local library
  systems.
• Similar to existing authentication methods such
  as 3M SIP.
• At the moment no circ vendors appear to be adding
  this capability.

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Testing and Rollout

• Phase 1 tests messages independent of the full
  request cycle
• This can be done in an hour, but so far it has
  always taken longer.
• Phase 2 tests the full request cycle
• Including Z39.50 search, printing of picklists,
  check out to users, etc.
• Both phases are completed by staff at OCLC PICA
  and the circ vendor.
• Successful completion of these 2 phases allows us
  to proceed to beta testing with libraries in the
  field.

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How to Talk to a (Circ) Vendor

• Ask them if they support the Circ/ILL or the
  DCB-3 NCIP Application Area Profiles.
• More specificly than NCIP support, they must
  support the 7 services we use, and the optional
  fields within them that we require.
• If they say yes, ask them what libraries are
  using it. Contact those libraries to confirm this
  and pass us that information.
• This will help us understand the context in which
  they have implemented NCIP.
• If they say no tell them how important it is to
  you and give them a copy of our Circ/ILL
  Application Profile from the customer website.
• This Application Profile tells them all they need
  to know to ensure their application will
  interoperate with VDX.