[Asis-l] NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol at Ballot

[Marilyn Geller]

Bethesda, Md., USA - (May 28, 2002) NISO, the National Information
Standards Organization, has announced the release for ballot of the
final text of the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) and its
accompanying Implementation Profile #1 developed by NISO Standards
Committee AT.  This standard, identified as NISO Z39.83, addresses the
various transactions needed to support circulation activities among
independent library systems such as patron and item inquiry and update
transactions, hold or reserve functions, check-out, renewal, and
check-in. It will also support the circulation of printed and electronic
materials and will facilitate direct patron borrowing, remote patron
authentication, on-line payment, and controlled access to electronic
documents. 

In announcing the balloting period, Pat Stevens of OCLC, Inc., the
committee's chair, said, "For many years exchanging circulation
information was enabled by proprietary and disparate systems that
offered limited interoperability.  Today, with the rapid evolution of
Web-based library services and the growing number of resource sharing
arrangements among libraries, a greater level of interoperability is
required.  NISO Z39.83 delivers this interoperability. Z39.83 provides
an open standard for the exchange of circulation information. Systems
implementing this standard will be able to exchange information about
library users, the items borrowed, the owners of the items, and the
relationships among these three entities."

The balloting period for this proposed standard is May 24 through July
8, 2002, and NISO encourages the all interested parties to submit
comments.  A variety of resources are located on the NISO web site
including the committee charge and meeting minutes as well as the freely
available PDF version of the proposed standard.

About NISO:
NISO is the only U.S. group accredited by the American National
Standards Institute to develop and promote technical standards for use
in information delivery services providing voluntary standards for
libraries, publishers and related information technology organizations.
All NISO standards are developed by consensus under the guidance of
experts and practitioners in the field to meet the needs of both the
information user and the producer.  For information about NISO's current
standardization interests and membership possibilities, please visit the
NISO website at http://www.niso.org.  

For additional information contact NISO Headquarters at (301) 654-2512. 
Email: nisohq at niso.org