NCIP (NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol) Mark Needleman Sirsi Corporation Steve Gregory Colorado State Library Access 2004

Agenda NCIP Tutorial Update on NCIP Maintenance Agency and Implementers Group Questions/Discussion

Committee Charge Define transactions needed for circulation systems among independent “library” systems Facilitate direct patron borrowing remote patron authentication circulation/ILL interaction online payment controlled access to electronic resources

Committee Makeup Representation ILS Vendors ILL Vendors Libraries Around 20 members with some additional observers Skills Computing/Technical Library Service Orientation

Scope of Standard A repertoire of messages & associated rules of syntax and semantics Between and among computer based applications Does not define circulation functions or policies Does not define user interface NCIP is not a Search and Retrieval Protocol !!

Applications Supported Direct consortial borrowing Circulation/InterLibrary Loan Interaction Self-service Circulation Access to Electronic Resources The standard’s test bed it had to support those, may be able to support others

Design Goals Keep it simple and within purpose Promote wide adoption Promote rapid adoption Build in flexibility Goal of adoption by existing library vendors and perhaps non traditional vendors

Technical Architecture 3 Service Types 3 Object Classes

Service Types Lookup “Tell me these things about this object.” Update “Please take this action.” Notification “I have taken this action.” Service Types are comprised of Services.

Object Classes Users Items Agencies (Libraries) Transactions are associations between one or more of the objects

Service Definitions Every “Service” is a pair of messages: an “Initiation Message” and a “Response Message” Each message provides complete context for it to be understood The protocol is designed NOT to require any particular sequence of services.

Lookup Service Lookup Agency Lookup Item Lookup User Lookup Version Authenticate User Lookup Request (proposed/accepted in Implementers Group)

Lookup Service Restrictions Lookups require a Unique Id They do not support discovery or searching

Update Services Typical Circulation Transactions: Request Item and Cancel Request Item Check Out Item and Undo Check Out Item Renew Item Recall Item and Cancel Recall Item Send User Notice Check In Item

Update Services (2) Object maintenance: Create Agency and Update Agency Create Item, Update Item and Update Request Item Create User and Update User Update User Fiscal Account Create Services used for new objects Update Services include modify and delete

Notification Services Typical Circulation Transactions: Item Requested and Item Request Cancelled Item Checked Out Item Renewed Item Recalled and Item Recall Cancelled User Notice Sent Item Checked In

Notification Services (2) Object maintenance: Agency Created and Agency Updated Item Created, Item Updated and Item Request Updated User Created and User Updated User Fiscal Account Updated

Notification Response Notifications occur after the fact - no ability to say “don’t do that” Only possible responses: Did not understand message Understood message

Message Structure Syntax and Encoding Scheme and Values Datatypes

Syntax and Encoding XML DTD (Currently) Discussion in Implementers group of converting to an XML Schema UTF-8 encoding of Unicode ASCII is valid in this encoding. But other systems are NOT restricted to ASCII, and you should be prepared to receive such data.

Scheme/Values Mechanism for extensibility Some defined in NCIP Provides ability for locally defined values

Scheme/Values (2) Handles enumerated types e.g., Language Defined by ISO Bibliographic Language Codes e.g., Currency Codes: Defined by ISO 4217:1995 Codes for the representation of currencies and funds.

Scheme/Values (3) Allows for extensibility e.g., Bibliographic Record Identifier Code: ANBN BGF BNBN CN LCCN NLM TCN OCLC RLIN

Scheme/Values (4) Allows for local agreements e.g., Agency User Privilege Type Adult Agency Head Colonel President Representative Senator Senior Senior Staff Staff Youth

Scheme/Values (5) Three kinds of Schemes: Required and Restricted (Closed Enumerated) Must be supported in order to conform Cannot be extended Required and Extendable (Open Enumerated) Must be supported in order to conform Can be extended Undefined (Open Not Enumerated) Not NCIP defined

Scheme Registration Scheme names conform to URI spec. Values within any Scheme must be unique Once published, the list of Values must not change in any way

Datatypes Taken from XML Datatypes 6 datatypes: boolean “true”, “false”, “1”, “0” integer nonNegativeInteger positiveInteger

Datatypes (2) timeInstant Restricted to ISO 8601’s “Extended format” Expressed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  “CCYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sssZ” string  You can append “-hh:mm” or “+hh:mm” to indicate local time as a difference (plus or minus) from UTC. In DTD expressed as attributes – but not enforceable – will be in XML Schema

Technical Foundation Application Roles Messaging Required Behavior Rules Security

Application Roles For a given connection, there is: 1 and only 1 initiating application (e.g., self- service machine), and 1 and only 1 responding application (e.g., circ system). Initiators may NOT send a second message until the first is responded to. Responders may NOT send initiation messages EVER on that connection

Application Roles (2) Applications MAY establish multiple connections at the same time. The Standard is written in terms of “initiating application” and “responding application”; this is always in the context of a given connection, not in the broader context of the application as a whole.

Messaging State Tables Transport Requirements Transport Protocol(s)

Messaging State Tables Do NOT govern the state of the circulation transaction DO govern the state of the exchange of the initiation/response message pair Initiating application is in IDLE or WAITING state Responding application is in IDLE or PROCESSING state

Defined Transport Protocols Initiator chooses from these 3: TCP/IP HTTP HTTPS Responder must reply on same connection

Omission of Requested Elements Applies to entire Lookup Service Type and to “piggy-backed” lookups on Update Services. Permits omission of some of the data the initiator asked for. Permits omission of the “Electronic Resource” element if the responder would rather not supply it in the response message.

Update Processing Responding application will behave as if all deletions requested were performed before all additions requested in the same message If an update to one element causes an update to another element not specifically asked - a Notification message may be used to inform the other side Example - change of birthday causes user category to change

Messaging Errors Indicate lack of understanding of the message: Invalid XML XML not conformant to the DTD Unknown scheme

Processing Errors Indicate inability or unwillingness to perform the action requested User Delinquent Unknown item Item does not circulate (Checkout) Maximum renewals exceeded (Renewal)

Document Structure Protocol Definition Implementation Profile 1 XML DTD/Schema Application Profiles

Currently three application areas: Consortial borrowing Circulation / ILL Self-service May be multiple profiles per application area Define how to use NCIP within a given application context

Application Profiles (2) Profiles can define Messages used Message sequencing Optional data elements that are mandatory Transport protocols required Schemes required or available Security requirements Use cases

Application Profiles (3) Some Application Profiles Written by NCIP Committee – meant as proof of concept for what Application Profiles should contain Intent is that Application Profiles will be developed to define requirements of specific Applications/Implementations

Current Status Standard/Implementation Profile Approved and Published in 2002 Z Part I Protocol Z Part 2 Implementation Profile 1 XML DTD XML Schema (currently Non Normative) Application Profiles (Non Normative) Avaialble at: Maintenance Agency Assigned Implementers Group Organized and Operating Implementations beginning to exist – in production, in testing/beta, in development