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UDT Series on Data Communication Technologies and Standards for Libraries

Models for Open System Protocol Development : A Technical Report (1994)

1. TC46 APPLICATION PROTOCOLS

ISO TC46, Information and Documentation, is responsible for the development of open system standards for libraries and information services. Two sets of service and protocol standards have been completed by TC46:

  • ISO 10160 Information and Documentation -- Open Systems Interconnection -- Interlibrary Loan Application Service Definition

    ISO 10161 Information and Documentation -- Open Systems Interconnection -- Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification

  • ISO 10162 Information and Documentation -- Open Systems Interconnection -- Search and Retrieve Application Service Definition

  • ISO 10163 Information and Documentation -- Open Systems Interconnection -- Search and Retrieve Application Protocol Specification

ISO 10160 and 10161 are referred to as the ILL protocol (or simply ILL) and ISO 10162 and 10163 are referred to as the SR protocol (or simply SR). The application areas for the SR and ILL are not limited to purely library environments. Both protocols, as they are defined today, may be used in different environments and for different functions. The number of different applications that can benefit from using these protocols will increase when the proposed addenda described below in section 4 have become standards.

The open system protocols for library and documentation sector are defined for several application environments. They are, however, only defined for system-to-system communication and neither define nor restrict the user interface.

The protocols may be based on different communication protocol suites such as the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) with connection-oriented ACSE or message-oriented X.400 or TCP/IP.

1.1 Applications Areas for SR

The SR protocol may be used in many environments. It was originally defined for use between bibliographic systems such as automated library catalogues. The SR protocol is, however, defined generally enough to be used not only for communication between library systems, but between systems in libraries and information centers in general. It may be used to access different information retrieval systems, for example, CWIS (Campus Wide Information Systems) and reference databases like DIALOG. In such environments one automated information system communicates with another automated information system according to the rules in ISO 10162 and ISO 10163. The protocol may also be used between stand-alone clients (a local "kernal" system offering a search dialogue, but without a local database) and systems acting as servers.

SR is a generic protocol and can be used to retrieve different types of data (records) handled by the systems including reference data, full-text documents, statistical data, science or technical data, or other types of data. The two systems communicating according to the SR protocol do not have to be systems of the same type as long as both have standard implementations of SR.

1.2 Application Areas for ILL

The ILL protocol has been defined for all types of environments in which ILL is performed. The main types of environments for ILL are the totally decentralized and the centralized, but there are also environments which are combinations of these types.

The ILL protocol may also be used for simple acquisition functions and for end-users requesting loans directly from remote libraries. Furthermore, the ILL protocol may be used for document ordering and supply.

The ILL protocol defines both the processing of an ILL request and the tracking of the borrowed documents. The request for a photocopy of a document may be processed using the processing phase of the ILL protocol. The processing phase of the ILL protocol may also be used for simple acquisition of documents.

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