What is NCIP?
The following information is taken from the Foreword to Circulation Interchange Protocol: Part 1, pp. vi-viii
Both the rapid evolution of Web-based library services and the growing number of resource sharing arrangements among libraries require an open standard for the exchange of circulation data. These applications must exchange data about library users, the items they wish to use, the owners of the items, and the relationships among these three entities.
In the absence of an agreed-upon standard for exchanging circulation data, interoperability among disparate applications has been ad hoc and proprietary. The cost of such solutions is high for individual agencies and in any case, these solutions often provide for only a limited exchange of data because proprietary solutions limit the number of implementations that can participate in the exchange.
This Standard is intended to address the growing need for interoperability among disparate circulation, interlibrary loan, and related applications. Interoperability between self-service applications and circulation applications, between and among various circulation applications, between circulation and interlibrary loan applications, and between other related applications, has been the principal focus of this Standard. All key terms used in this Standard are defined in Section 4 or Section 6.
The demand for self-service applications led to the development of the 3M Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP) which has become the de facto standard interface for self-service applications. This Standard supports the deployment of self-service applications by building on experience obtained from the broad use of the 3M SIP.
Both the rapid evolution of Web-based library services and the growing number of resource sharing arrangements among libraries require an open standard for the exchange of circulation data. These applications must exchange data about library users, the items they wish to use, the owners of the items, and the relationships among these three entities.
In the absence of an agreed-upon standard for exchanging circulation data, interoperability among disparate applications has been ad hoc and proprietary. The cost of such solutions is high for individual agencies and in any case, these solutions often provide for only a limited exchange of data because proprietary solutions limit the number of implementations that can participate in the exchange.
This Standard is intended to address the growing need for interoperability among disparate circulation, interlibrary loan, and related applications. Interoperability between self-service applications and circulation applications, between and among various circulation applications, between circulation and interlibrary loan applications, and between other related applications, has been the principal focus of this Standard. All key terms used in this Standard are defined in Section 4 or Section 6.
The demand for self-service applications led to the development of the 3M Standard Interchange Protocol (SIP) which has become the de facto standard interface for self-service applications. This Standard supports the deployment of self-service applications by building on experience obtained from the broad use of the 3M SIP.
