KMLM List

[Karen Wetzel <kwetzel@xxxxxxxx>]

NISO Announces Availability of NCIP Implementer Registry
Site brings together information about vendors’ implementations of NCIP

Baltimore, MD - November 10, 2010 - NISO is pleased to announce the  
availability of the NCIP Implementer Registry, a site that allows  
vendors to share information about their implementations of the NISO  
Circulation Interchange Protocol (ANSI/NISO Z39.83, Parts 1 and 2).  
NCIP addresses the need for interoperability among disparate  
circulation, interlibrary loan, and related applications by  
standardizing the exchange of messages between and among computer- 
based applications.

At this time, the following vendors have indicated their use of NCIP  
by signing up for the registry: Auto-Graphics, Ex Libris, Innovative  
Interfaces, Inc., and Rapid Radio. The registry is linked from the  
NCIP website (www.niso.org/workrooms/ncip) and from the NCIP  
maintenance agency site (www.ncip.info).

The registry allows vendors to enter information about their  
implementations of Version 1 of the standard, now deprecated but still  
widely used, and Version 2 of the standard, the current version of the  
standard adopted in 2008. Vendors may participate in the standard as  
an initiator of messages, a responder to messages, or both.

By making this information publicly available, libraries will be able  
to see which vendors currently support NCIP, which version(s) of the  
standard are supported, and which messages in the standard are  
supported. In 2010 the NCIP Standing Committee defined two sets of  
core messages for accomplishing essential tasks: the Resource Sharing  
and the Self-Service. All required messages must be enabled for a  
vendor to claim support for a core message set. Depending on the role  
the vendor is playing in the transaction, the vendor must either  
support the messages as an initiator or responder.

NCIP Standing Committee member Susan Campbell (Research & Development  
Consultant, College Center for Library Automation), who, with Mary  
Jackson (Product Manager, Resource Sharing, Auto-Graphics) developed  
the Drupal-based registry for the committee, noted, “The new registry  
builds on years of work on NCIP. It is a key next step to help  
libraries better understand which vendors provide NCIP, which NCIP  
messages are supported, and how those might in turn support what the  
library needs in order to more efficiently provide resource sharing or  
self-service services to their users. I am pleased to make this  
registry available and look forward to seeing its growth.”

Rob Walsh, President of EnvisionWare, the Maintenance Agency for NCIP,  
as well as co-chair for NISO’s Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee,  
which provides oversight to the NCIP Standing Committee, added, “This  
is a wonderful step forward for NCIP. The registry is just one of the  
tools that the Standing Committee has been working on to support NCIP  
implementers and users. By making this information more broadly  
available, the community will be able to make better informed  
decisions to help meet their customers’ and patrons’ needs.”

The NCIP Standing Committee is working to develop additional user  
tools. For more information, visit the NCIP website at www.niso.org/workrooms/ncip 
 or the NCIP maintenance agency home at www.ncip.info.

About NISO
NISO, based in Baltimore, Md., fosters the development and maintenance  
of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and  
effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use  
in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages  
libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other  
organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through  
the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge.  
NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the  
entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit  
association accredited by the American National Standards Institute  
(ANSI).

For More Information, Contact:
Victoria Kinnear
NISO Business Development and Operations Manager
Phone: 301-654-2512
vkinnear@xxxxxxxx

Karen Wetzel
NISO Standards Program Manager
kwetzel@xxxxxxxx
----------------------
Karen A. Wetzel
Standards Program Manager
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
One North Charles Street, Suite 1905
Baltimore, MD 21201
Tel.: 301-654-2512
Fax: 410-685-5278
E-mail: kwetzel@xxxxxxxx