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Technically Speaking
Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois. Column for January 2001 ILL News from RLG and OCLCThe Research Libraries Group (RLG) has announced that it is now shipping version 1.1 of its ILL Manager software. This product raises the bar for interlibrary loan systems because it is not a client/server-based system, but rather a peer-to-peer system that makes use of peer-to-peer messaging through ISO ILL protocol compliance. This means that screen scrapes, e-mail messages, and other short-term proprietary or unstructured methods for transferring ILL data from one system to another are no longer needed, as long as the remote system that RLG’s ILL Manager “talks to” supports ISO ILL protocols. However, the software also supports nonprotocol messaging as well, so that e-mail and ALA or IFLA forms can be sent to ILL partners that do not have ISO-compliant ILL systems. RLG has completed extensive testing of its ILL Manager with OCLC’s ISO ILL gateway, which allows a library to exchange requests with OCLC’s centralized ILL system. RLG is currently testing ILL Manager for interoperability with the British Library’s ARTel system, the National Library of Medicine (NLM)’s Docline product, and Pigasus’ Wings. Future test plans include Epixtech’s RSS, Perkins and Associates’ Clio, and Fretwell Downing’s VDX. Institutions that acquired version 1.0 (released last March) are automatically receiving the new release at no charge. For new customers, single-copy purchase prices start at $2,370 and are based on the number of annual interlibrary loans, the number of copies purchased, and whether the library is a member of RLG. Annual fees begin at $330. For more information, visit the RLG Web site. OCLC has finalized the agreement it had announced with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties and Atlas Systems to license and become the sole distributor of ILLiad, a comprehensive ILL-management system. The name of the product has been changed to OCLC ILLiad Resource Sharing Management Software, and it’s available either directly from OCLC or through its affiliated U.S. regional networks or international distributors. One notable feature of the software is that it allows patrons to check the status of their ILL requests without staff intervention 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like RLG’s ILL Manager, ILLiad is designed to interface with OCLC’s and RLIN’s ILL services as well as with NLM’s Docline. The ILLiad Web site (see below) currently lists 45 libraries using ILLiad, all but two of them single-institution academic libraries. But OCLC has indicated that a significant number of additional orders not reflected on the Web list of ILLiad users have been received. Prices for licenses are institution-based, rather than copy-based, and depend on the number of annual interlibrary loans, the number of satellite sites using the software, and whether the library is a member of OCLC. An annual license fee for a single site starts at $3,500. A one-time optional site installation fee is $1,200. For more information, visit the ILLiad Web site. Polaris in EvidenceWe previously wrote that Polaris was nowhere in evidence at the Brodart booth at the July ALA Annual Conference. That’s because Polaris is a Gaylord Information Systems product, and it was very prominent at the GIS booth. The company has announced release of 1.5, which features a new database, a redesigned search engine, an upgraded cataloger’s toolkit, and more-sophisticated patron accounting functionality. It was Brodart’s Precision One that we did not find in evidence at the Brodart booth. Jargon Overload DepartmentQuotes from two press releases we recently received: “RoweCom Inc., the leader in empowering knowledge-based communities to work smarter, announced the integration of Barnes & Noble.com and MindBranch content into its kStore service.” “By using webMethods B2B, EBSCO can leverage the Internet to conduct business transactions with customers using different industry standards and protocols.” Sure, if you say so. ExLibris Wins ThreeExLibris has contracted with Harvard University, for installation of the Aleph 500 system in the Harvard University Libraries; with Germany’s Max-Planck Society, for the Aleph 500 system for 11 Max-Planck Institute libraries (in addition to the already-installed systems at three of the institutes); and with the Sistema Bibliotecario Ticinese of Locarno, Switzerland, in the canton Ticino, for an Aleph 500 system to be installed in 11 cantonal libraries to replace the Consortium’s VTLS Virtua system. Correction—In fact, the SBT consortium has not installed a Virtua system. |
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By David Dorman