[SigLT-L] NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) Standing Committee to Replace Former Maintenance Agency

[Cynthia Hodgson]

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the
replacement of the maintenance agency for the two-part American National
Standard on the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP), ANSI/NISO
Z39.83, with a Standing Committee for ongoing maintenance of the standard.
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. The NCIP protocol is widely supported in integrated library
systems (ILS) and resource sharing software.

"Maintenance agencies were typically established for certain types of
information system standards where the community requires implementation
support and the tracking and resolution of problem reports," explains Nettie
Lagace, NISO's Associate Director for Programs. "In 2009, NISO moved the
NCIP standard to continuous maintenance, which allows for regular submittal
and review of proposed changes and more frequent updating of the standard.
The NCIP Implementers Group was changed at that time to a Standing Committee
to oversee the continuous maintenance process. In 2013, EnvisionWare, who
had been the Maintenance Agency for the standard decided to step down from
that role and the NCIP Standing Committee has agreed to take over its
responsibilities."

"Staff at EnvisionWare are to be commended for the excellent oversight they
provided for the NCIP standard for many years," states Todd Carpenter, NISO
Executive Director. "They took an active role in promoting the use of the
standard and have worked hand-in-hand with the Implementers Group and
Standing Committee to ensure the standard remains current."

"The NCIP Standing Committee has taken over responsibility for the ncip.info
website," states Mike Dicus, Product Manager, Ex Libris, and Chair of the
NCIP Standing Committee. "A number of supporting tools and documentation
have been developed to aid in implementation. These include an XML schema
that matches the implementation profile defined in Part 2 of the standard,
an Introduction to NCIP to provide 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. 

The NCIP standard and the supporting tools and documentation are freely
available at: www.ncip.info/.

 

 

Cynthia Hodgson

Technical Editor / Consultant

National Information Standards Organization

chodgson at niso.org

301-654-2512

 

 

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