NISO Publishes New Version of NCIP - NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol
Standard supports greater interoperability for resource sharing

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the
publication of the two-part American National Standard on the NISO
Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP), ANSI/NISO Z39.83. NCIP addresses
the need for interoperability among disparate circulation, interlibrary
loan, consortial borrowing, and self-service applications by standardizing
the exchange of messages between and among computer-based applications. Part
1 of the standard defines the Protocol and Part 2: Implementation Profile
provides a practical implementation structure. The NCIP protocol is widely
supported in integrated library systems (ILS) and resource sharing software.

"This latest edition of NCIP, version 2.02, incorporates implementers'
feedback and experience into the standard with changes that improve the
usefulness and practicality of the various services," explained Mike Dicus,
Product Manager at Ex Libris Group and Co-chair of the NCIP Standing
Committee. "One of the larger changes in 2.02 is the addition of a Lookup
Item Set service. This new service allows an initiator to query with a
single request a set of items that may share some kind of relationship, such
as multiple volumes of a book set. Additionally, Bibliographic Record Id has
been made repeatable within Bibliographic Description. This makes it
possible, for example, for an initiator to send an Accept Item message
passing both an OCLC number and a Library of Congress Catalog Number. And
Request Item has been changed so that it now accepts both Bibliographic
Record Id and Item Id, and both elements are repeatable. In earlier
versions, Request Item accepted either a single Bibliographic Record Id or a
single Item Id."

"In addition to the standard, the NCIP Standing Committee has made available
supporting tools and documentation to aid in implementation," stated Rob
Walsh, representative for EnvisionWare, the Maintenance Agency for NCIP. "An
XML schema is available that matches the implementation profile defined in
Part 2 of the standard. The document Introduction to NCIP provides
librarians and other implementers with a basic introduction to NCIP and
links to sources of additional information about the standard. The NCIP Core
Message Set defines a minimal set of nine messages (out of the full set of
45) that supports the majority of the current functionality for resource
sharing and self-service applications and provides a simpler starting point
for new implementers. And an NCIP Implementer Registry collects information
about vendors' implementations-specifically which versions and which
messages are supported."

"This new version of NCIP illustrates the responsiveness of the NCIP
Standing Committee to the needs of the libraries and system vendors who are
using the standard," asserts Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. "The
NCIP Standing Committee has semiannual meetings and monthly conference calls
to discuss implementation practices and ways of promoting the standard. We
encourage users of the new version to share their experiences with the
Committee."

The NCIP standard and the supporting tools and documentation are freely
available from the NCIP Workroom on the NISO website:
www.niso.org/workrooms/ncip/.


Cynthia Hodgson
Technical Editor / Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
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301-654-2512