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Reviews
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ILL Update ALA MW 2000 |
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ILL management systems are maturing apace. Integrated Z39.50 clients, a variety of
communications protocols including ISO 10160/61 and other developments are rounded up here by Peter Evans
Wings, Library.Request, Clio, ILLIAD, VDX, RSS, Back to ALA review
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Pigasus software was showing version 2.0 of their web based ISO compliant Inter Library
Loan software - Wings™. Like the other US suppliers in this sector Wings has concentrated on ease of use with many nice touches in the administration of requests like
label printing. Wings is entirely Web based and uses a backend SQL Server7™ or Oracle8I™ coupled with ColdFusion™ to provide Web to database access. In addition to
canned reports, products like Crystal Reports™ can be used against either of these ODBC compliant databases. Wings also provides customers with a complete database schema
to assist in creation of reports. External communications with other libraries and document suppliers can be via ISO 10161. Wings system use ERP (Extended Request Protocol) between themselves (see below).
A key point about the Wings system philosophy is that it supports the manual intervention
of the user to untangle any "dead ends" that the protocol might get into due to unexpected situations that leave the request in a "limbo land" where no automatic action can take place.
Communications from the Wings system is flexible with ISO, ERP, Canadian GSM and
formatted e-mail options. Wings can also interrogate the holdings of a remote system web catalogue (including III, DRA, VTLS, and TLC) to determine the status (checked out or
available). This is done via a custom built link to each LMS that might be required in a specific implementation of Wings - Z39.50 is not used for this type of interrogation since
there is no standard format for the conveying of the vital holdings information yet. Wings will support 3M SIP2 protocol soon for the updating of a local circ system.
Like most systems Wings maintains a database of trading partners and patrons - which
can be batch loaded or a live link maintained to a patron database. Each library has their own database on a Wings system so that the privacy of each library's database is
maintained. Another interesting feature of Wings is the maintenance of a log of all messages so that the user can see the individual packets of data as they have been passed up and down between systems.
New features are promised for the next release of the Wings to cover smarter, automated operation.
ERP (Extended Request Protocol), is used by Wings in place of ISO when communicating
with other Wings systems. Developed by Pigasus Inc. but in the public domain, ERP has additional features e.g. to the cover acknowledgement of message receipt. Normally, an
ISO message is recorded as having been sent to a library but there is no means of knowing whether the remote library has in fact received the message. ERP messaging, as used in
Wings, introduces additional messages to acknowledge the receipt of the message at the remote library thus providing additional information and assurance that the other library is
indeed "up". Pigasus are hoping that the next release of ISO 10161 will incorporate this or a similar mechanism.
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The Library Corporation announced that they have contracted to install a customized version of their Library.Request™
to provide ILL management via ISO 10160/61 version 2 protocol. This installation will enable ISO 10 160/61 Protocol interface with more than 3,000 (J. S and Canadian medical libraries.
To date, NLM's automated interlibrary loan request and referral system, DOCLINE , has
been. running on a mainframe computer. DOCLINE is currently undergoing changes for converting the system to a Web-based platform for handling NLM's more than 10,000 ILL
transactions a day. Part of this transformation includes the ability to communicate with the medical libraries in a standard language.
TLC is providing an ISO compliant Interface Server to act as an intermediary between the
DOCLINE system and ISO compliant ILL systems, according to Dr. Mark Wilson, TLC's Director of Research and Development.
Toolkit for Vendors - as well as supplying Library.Request for end users, TLC can provide system vendors with an ISO 10160/61 toolkit. ILL.Connect
is a source code C++ object-oriented implementation of the ASN.1 encoding that supports ISO 10160-10161 ILL. Vendors and institutions that wish to build an ISO 10160-10161 front end for a legacy
system, should contact The Library Corporation for licensing details. ILL.Connect implements all ISO ILL services, messages, data elements and the ISO ILL State Machine.
Users are expected to have a full understanding of the ISO ILL Protocol, C++, and Object Oriented programming. ILL.Connect is extensible and does not require a SNACC compiler. For more information, contact Randy Kremer. Back to ALA review
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Clio is a competent ILL system developed by Perkins Associates and, like the other USA
systems, concentrates on ergonomic practical features to make the ILL function as smooth and as trouble free as possible. During MidWinter ALA 2000, Clio announced a 3 year deal
with Endeavor to bundle their system with Voyager for ILL. Part of this deal involves the development of an ISO 10160/61 protocol which has been tested with FDI and should be
released shortly. Clio also has an ARTemail interface to enable the British users of Voyager to interface with BLDSC.
Clio uses a Windows client rather than a Web based client which gives the screens a more
polished professional look and allows more complex interaction with the application. Patrons can initiate requests and are able to receive e-mail alerts from the system when item arrive.
There are a host of reporting options with practical attention paid to aspects like copyright
reporting of titles accessed more than 5 times etc. patrons files may be loaded but none of Clio's current customers have yet asked for it. Current customers include many public
library and mixed consortia right across the USA. The link with Endeavor may soon make that spread an intercontinental one. Other features coming as a result of the link-up with
Endeavor will be the ability to check the circulation status of items. Currently incoming requests have to be catalogue checked since there is no holdings information available from a patron initiated request.
Clio supports the ILL Fee Match system of OCLC where account is kept of the traffic
between lending and requesting library to enable the working out of net lenders etc. i.e. rather than pay for items "as you go", Clio calculates the balance of lending over a period
between partners and allows final end of period accounting. Back to ALA review
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ILLiad was developed at and is used at, Virginia Tech and about another 20 major
Universities in the USA. Initially developed in 1996/7 as a borrowing client the system now covers all the basic aspects of the ILL process with links to the major document suppliers
and interlending agencies in the USA including OCLC, RLIN and Docline. The user interface is Web based and users can also have access to their requests to monitor status
- always a useful feature to cut down on queries to ILL staff.
Useful features of ILLiad include, patron request - automatic checking for mandatory fields,
integrated loan control system with patron view onto previous requests. Cancelled requests can be re-submitted by users.
The specific ILL interfaces to OCLC, RLIN and Docline allow the bibliographic information to
be loaded into the ILL form but there is no interface to other sources e.g. Z39.50 targets around the world and the system can be linked to your own OPAC via a telnet session to
check local holdings and copy bibliographic information.
ILLiad has automated electronic delivery from Ariel sourced items via Adobe format.
Other useful features of Illiad include the printing of a loan label complete with barcode for
direct scanning and loading into ILLiad's loan control system.
ILLiad requires MS SQL Server 7.0 or higher and MS Internet Information Server.
The main drawback of ILLiad currently is that it has no ISO 10160/61 protocol to allow peer
to peer ILL traffic and interaction with other systems offering this protocol. However this feature is planned. Contact: http://www.atlas-sys.com Back to ALA review
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Fretwell-Downing Informatics (FDI) are a British company with probably the most capable
ILL system available. The VDX system has several advanced features which make it the leader in large consortia and national library systems. Many of these features may not be
needed by the smaller library yet, but as the trading model for ILL changes under the pressure of peer to peer E-Lending, watch as other systems try to catch up with VDX.
The base technology for VDX was developed during several European Union technology
initiatives during the nineties and the product was further developed after FDI won the contract to implement the LIDDAS project in Australia. VDX is now used by a consortium
of all the major Australian university libraries, the National Library of Australia and the National Library of New Zealand. Their demanding specification has lead to the
development of many of the features now standard in VDX.
The system supports both Windows and Web clients for request administration with the
key configuration tasks being done in the Windows client. VDX is based primarily on the "peer to peer" model where one library ILL system talks to another via the ISO 10160/61
protocol. In addition to this protocol, a wide range of other supplier interfaces are supported via e-mail drivers and also ART to the British Library, GEDI to Ariel etc. Incoming requests
can also be handled via E-Mail. The key differences within the VDX product are within the searching and automatic routing parts of the system however.
VDX incorporates Z39.50 client technology so that a library may set up a virtual union
catalogue - similar to Site Search from OCLC - where a community of libraries can search each other's resources through a single interface. Once an item is located, the user may
request it and VDX will then create a request based on the bibliographic details it finds on the database.
Automatic routing features can be set so that a route is automatically created and the
request sent without intervention if desired. The route is based on a set of complex rules which can take cost, speed and other factors into consideration with each library and even
individual patrons having separate rules. These features, and others, make the system very suitable for major consortia. Reporting is via an internal search/filter/print feature with
customisable layouts or ODBC compliant reporting tools like Access or Crystal Reports. There are few pre-defined management reports unlike most of the other systems.
Back to ALA review
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RSS (Resource Sharing System) was the first ISO compliant commercially available ILL
product when it was launched in July 1998 by Ameritech (now Epixtech). It has been deployed in some large consortia to link both Epixtech systems (Dynix Classic, NOTIS and
Horizon) and other ISO compliant ILL systems.
RSS is a very competent system with Z39.50 searching built-in so that the user can search
for items beyond the boundaries of the local system. When an item is requested, RSS checks the local catalogue and if not held will create a request based on the details from
the remote source. Patron data can also be gained from the local system if required. A routing string is created from local preference tables. There are some nice features to allow
the librarian to select bibliographic details from a Z39.50 search and copy into the request. Also useful is the feature for choosing another library as the requesting library where the
RSS operator is acting as a hub for a consortium which then forwards local requests to OCLC for example. Epixtech now has a dual solution for ILL since it recently acquired the
URSA (Universal Resource Sharing Application) software from Australian supplier CPS
systems. Back to ALA review
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