Industry News- The Library Corporation and epixtech Implement NCIP

The expansion of standards such as Z39.50 in the last decade has made it possible for libraries employing automation systems from disparate vendors to share information. The sharing capabilities proved a boon to libraries, although there are limitations. Two leading vendors now have taken the sharing concept a step further: The Library Corporation (TLC) and epixtech, inc. announced they have successfully implemented "the industry's first NCIP (National Circulation Interchange Protocol) communication exchange between two different automation systems." The complex system interactions were developed by Mark Wilson, TLC's chief scientist, and John Bodfish, epixtech's technical architect.

Wilson and Bodfish are both members of Committee AT of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). According to NISO, Committee AT's goal with the NCIP standard is to "define the various transactions needed to support circulation activities among independent library systems [including] patron and item inquiry and update transactions, such as hold or reserve, check-out, renew, and check-in."

TLC Marketing Director Gary Kirk explained to LJ that while serving on the NISO committee, Wilson and Bodfish "had gotten to know each other and decided to conduct the test together. Wilson developed the tool kit and test bed required to perform the test." Though standards can be a complicated matter, Kirk said that in simple terms, NCIP "would allow any system to communicate with any other system. This is a key component for allowing borrowing privileges to patrons outside the traditional library patron boundaries."

While NCIP was developed by employees of these two vendors, Kirk asserts that the new standard protocol can be used by all vendors to promote the exchange of circulation data. "This capability will be an industry standard, literally," Kirk said. "I don't know that it will become a separate product more than just a capability that all vendors will be required to have."

This development could have significant impact on the field as NCIP, Z39.50, and interlibrary loan combined remove all the barriers to cooperative loaning and borrowing among libraries that use different ILS products. "In the past, the proprietary nature of ILS has hindered this kind of cooperative access to library materials," Kirk said.