Go to National Library of Australia Home PageNational Library of Australia Online

SEARCH:

Networked Services Project
Request for Tender for NLA Networked Services

Chapter 4 - Project Capabilities Sought

4.4 National Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Utility

4.4.1 Overview

4.4.2 Mapping to Configurations

4.4.3 General Capabilities Sought

4.4.4 Specific Capabilities Sought

4.4.5 Questions

4.4.6 Links to other configurations

4.4.1 Overview

The Library recognises that while Customer Libraries and End Users will be able to access increasing numbers of digital documents directly through database hosting services or the Web, there will continue to be a strong need for resource sharing on a national basis.

This Section deals with facilities identified as essential requirements for a national interlending and document delivery utility. The major function of this utility is to support resource sharing among Customer Libraries and to enable those libraries and End Users to request the supply of documents from other Customer Libraries through links to the National Bibliographic Utility (Section 4.1), as well as external document suppliers.

The National ILL Utility service will need to ensure that Customer Libraries and End Users continue to have access to the large volume of documents which exist in the collections of libraries and other information providers in Australia and overseas, in hard copy (paper, microform, etc) or electronic form (full text, images, video, CD-ROM etc). While End Users may have direct access to resources through commercial document suppliers and publishers, the Library upholds the value of supporting the continuing demand for traditional interlibrary loan traffic through national resource sharing operations.

In replacing the existing ABN ILL system the Library recognises that the complexity and scale of the interlibrary loan and document delivery processes require solutions that will address national utility services, regional networks, local request management functions, electronic document delivery transmission systems, and commercial suppliers in an integrated way. As a final outcome, it is intended that the interlending and document delivery services provided for the Australian library community comprise systems either interconnected, wholly integrated, or able to interoperate in a convenient, economic and seamless operation.

In order to offer a comprehensive interlending and document request management service to Customer Libraries and End Users, the Library will undertake a separate procurement process in conjunction with the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AV-CC), seeking systems that implement the models established as part of the Coordinated Interlibrary Loan Administration (CILLA) Project (Appendix A5).

To complete the document supply process the Library also supports the Joint Electronic Document Delivery Software (JEDDS) Project which aims to deliver documents electronically using Email. The first stage of JEDDS is available in product release as Ariel 2.0¨ for Windows ª.

In Stage 1 of the NSP, the Library seeks tendered solutions for a National ILL Utility. Requirements for local interlending and document request management systems with which the National ILL Utility might interoperate will be incorporated in a separate procurement process. Inquiries on local request management requirements may be made to:

Judith Greenaway, CILLA Project Manager
Telephone: +61 3 9244 3894
Mobile: 0419 556397
Email: cilla@gu.edu.au

4.4.1.1 Business Processes

The functions of a National ILL Utility may be seen as encompassing three broad business processes: creating and receiving document requests; managing the "life-cycle" of the request; interacting with document delivery systems.

a) Creating and Receiving Document Requests

Convenience and ease of use for users is a high priority. The National ILL Utility will operate in an environment where users should be able to verify a citation either through the National Bibliographic Database or elsewhere, determine the location and availability of the document and place a request in one seamless operation. Depending on availability, timeliness and cost choices made by users, they should be able to choose from various supply options.

There may be several scenarios for the sequential processes of bibliographic discovery and initiating a request including:

i. the bibliographic citation may be passed directly to the local request management system where verification of the requester, decisions on potential suppliers and other local rules are applied before a request is created and sent through the National ILL Utility as one option of supply, eg via the ISO 10160/1 (ILL protocol)
ii. the request creation process may reside on the database hosting services of the Library (or other vendors) and then pass automatically to the local request management system, eg via Z39.50 Item Order
iii. where no local request management system exists, requests may be created, accessed or modified directly online through the National ILL Utility.

Customer Libraries with local request management systems should also be able to receive requests routed through the National ILL Utility from other Customer Libraries.

b) Managing the "Life-Cycle" of the Request

The Library wants to continue to provide services which will support the current cooperative Australian interlibrary loan environment (see Appendix A5) and help libraries manage their interlending and document delivery operations. The Library seeks solutions which:

i. take account of open system, standards-based developments directed towards achieving interoperability with other request management systems
ii. recognise that Customer Libraries and End Users will wish to utilise other services to obtain documents not available through the services operated by the Library, but may still require the interlinking of services and the option to download bibliographic information and holdings information into local system(s)
iii. are able to route and track request progress through selected suppliers made available via the National Bibliographic Utility or any of the Library's hosted databases.

The Library wishes to encourage the development of an environment where Customer Libraries have local interlibrary loan and document request management systems as described in the CILLA Project documentation, and envisages that most interactions with the National ILL Utility will occur as machine to machine transactions using protocols such as ISO 10160/1 (ILL) protocols and Z39.50.

See the CILLA documentation at:

http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/cilla/cilla.htm

The Library recognises that some individual libraries may not employ local request management systems, or may have local systems which do not support the necessary protocols. While the National ILL Utility is not providing the functionality of a fully comprehensive local request management system, it should provide minimal functionality through direct, online access to the creation and modification of requests, inquiry on request progress and status changes, the ability to initiate status changes, and request activity reports.

c) Interacting with Document Delivery Systems

Any particular document may be delivered:

i. immediately in electronic form from one of the Library's servers or an external server operated by another library or supplier
ii. as a loan requiring physical transport to and return from the requester
iii. as a physical copy produced in due course from the original document, (photocopy, microform, photographic print, analogue cassette etc)
iv. as a digital copy produced on demand from an original document (paper, microfiche, digital object etc).

The Library and Australian universities have obtained rights to use the ARIEL document transmission software from Research Libraries Group by virtue of their contribution to the product development effort through the JEDDS project. ARIEL produces an image of a paper document for transmission via the Internet to a library for printing and delivery to the end User. Subject to copyright considerations, delivery of the document image to the End User's work station is also possible. The JEDDS enhanced version of Ariel will allow further improvements in workflow by interacting with request management systems through the exchange of transaction and status information using the ILL protocol.

See the JEDDS documentation at:

http://www.gu.edu.au/alib/iii/docdel/jeddshom.htm

The National ILL Utility will not provide document delivery but should be able to interface with local request management systems eg via Z39.50 and ISO 10160/1 standards and with JEDDS/ARIEL in order to integrate document delivery with the request management process.

4.4.2 Mapping to Configurations

Functions and capabilities in Section 4.4 relate to Configuration #4, National ILL Utility.

4.4.3 General Capabilities Sought

The general capabilities sought for the National ILL Utility are:

a) To provide national utility functions including:

i. access to the National Bibliographic Utility, especially for holdings
ii. maintenance of and access to a national directory of suppliers and policies
iii. support of the life cycle process for incoming and outgoing requests
iv. aggregated billing for documents requested and supplied
v. maintenance of activity statistics

b) To interface with local request management systems preferably via ISO 10160/1 (ILL) protocols and Z39.50

c) To provide a direct online access to the National ILL Utility to create or modify requests, track request progress, initiate request status changes for those Customer Libraries without a local request management system, or with a request management system which does not support the ISO 10160/1 (ILL) protocols

d) To interact with document delivery systems using the subset of the ISO 10160/1 (ILL) protocols in the JEDDS profile.

4.4.4 Specific Capabilities Sought

The specific capabilities listed are not intended to be an exhaustive list of required functionality. They are designed to be illustrative of the range of functionality desired by the Library and include capabilities which may be unusual in the library services marketplace. The Library does not expect that Tenderers will necessarily be able to provide all the functionality listed. However, the selection process will include detailed evaluation of the extent to which Tenderers are able to provide those capabilities.

4.4.4.1 Specific National ILL Utility capabilities

The National ILL Utility should:

a) Provide access for Customer Libraries and End Users to search the National Bibliographic Utility for citation verification and for holdings, and incorporate this data into their requests

b) Maintain and provide access to directory services (eg ILL policies, copyright liabilities, charging practices, categories of users served, categories of material supplied) about all libraries which act as suppliers, including volatile information (eg temporary inability to supply). A directory already exists, the Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory (ILRS - see Appendix A.3 and A.5)

c) Maintain general processing rules about Customer Libraries and other suppliers based on (a) and (b)

d) Send requests, receive and route requests, including via ISO 10160/1 and Z39.50 Item Order to and from local request management systems, regional networks and other utilities

e) Provide direct online access for the creation and modification of requests, incorporating citation and holdings information from the National Bibliographic Utility and other sources, including directory and user profile information

f) For requests created online allow preferred suppliers to be selected with the option of automatically constructing a forwarding list

g) Provide direct online access to track request progress, initiate request status changes, request activity reports

h) Include the ability to conduct mass updates or batched processes and to archive requests

i) To interface with electronic document transmission software via the JEDDS profile of the ISO 10160/1 (ILL) protocols

j) Offer aggregated billing to Customer Libraries by debiting for documents received and crediting for documents delivered through the system. See also Section 4.5.4.6 under Administrative Support System

k) Maintain, generate and aggregate activity statistics, eg by type of library, state, subject area and type of documents requested

l) Provide an intuitive, efficient user interface with context-sensitive online help.

4.4.4.2 Interoperability with other interlending and document request management systems and document transmission systems

a) The National ILL Utility should be able to communicate with other interlending and document request management and document transmission systems by ensuring compliance with international standards and protocols.

The National ILL Utility therefore should support the use of:

i. Z39.50 for searching and data retrieval
This could for example be used for local systems searching the National Bibliographic Utility for citations and holdings, local systems searching the directory for information about suppliers, ILL utilities searching for local availability of a document in a potential supplier's local system.
ii. ISO 10160/1 for exchange of messages and request status updates
This would allow status updates on the National ILL Utility to be reflected on the local interlending and document request management system and vice versa so that, for instance, users of a local interlending and document request management system can track requests sent via the National ILL Utility without having to leave their local system. It would also allow the National ILL Utility to interface with JEDDS/ARIEL.
iii. Z39.50 Extended Service for Item Order
This could allow the National ILL Utility to accept requests sent from database hosting services via Z39.50 Item Order. It would also allow the National ILL Utility to send requests to commercial suppliers which accept requests via Z39.50 Item Order.

b) As far as possible the Library wishes to support the access to and maintenance of directory services through protocols such as X.500 and LDAP. The Library seeks information on the methods used by the Tendered System to support directory services and the extent to which those services may interact with other directory services at local, regional, national and international levels.

c) The Library seeks information on any other protocols or methods used by the Tendered System to interoperate with other interlending and document request management systems or document transmission systems.

4.4.5 Questions

a) Describe the architecture of the system - is it client/server, where are individual functions performed, what data files are used, what interfaces and links are used to other files and systems, including standards supported, eg. ISO 10160/1, Z39.50 item order?

b) Describe how document requests are created and received on the system. What data elements may be included in the requests? Are there different request types, eg. for loans and copies?

c) Describe how citations are validated and document location or availability are determined.

d) How is the list of potential suppliers built? What data sources and parameters can be used to build the list, eg. by list of preferred suppliers, by price? Can a requester be prevented from selecting a potential supplier who has prohibited requests from that category of user or who has registered a temporary inability to receive requests?

e) How is payment for document requesting and supply handled?

f) Describe what facilities your system provides for copyright management.

g) Describe how the request life cycle is managed, ie. sending/receiving requests, routing and re-routing, message handling, status updates, archiving etc.

h) What options are there for sorting requests and searching working files of requests? Describe any features that make workflow efficient, eg batch updating, automatic updating, automatic checking against supplier's own system, automatic forwarding.

i) What reports and statistics are available? What customisation is available? What output formats are available?

j) What access control is available on the system? Can certain functions and data be restricted to authorised users?

k) What customisation is available, in the user interface, in work forms, in functions that can be turned on or off?

l) Describe any differences between the customisation that is available system-wide, and the customisation that is available to each Customer Library. To what extent can customised options be changed later?

m) How will users search the Interlibrary Resource Sharing Directory or equivalent directory of suppliers? How will the directory information be maintained, eg. will it be on a separate database system? What protocols are supported for maintaining and accessing directory information?

n) If client software is proposed, what arrangements are proposed for distribution, installation, support, and updates?

o) What local interlibrary loan and document request management systems and/or document transmission systems can the Tendered System interoperate with, and how?

p) Describe how the Library's Service Managers could access all requests which Customer Libraries have created or for which they are potential suppliers?

q) The Library will be undertaking a separate tender for local interlending and document request management software which must interoperate with the Tendered System for the National ILL Utility. For a broad description of capabilities sought in this software, see Appendix A5, section A5.2, The CILLA Project. Describe any such systems with which the Tendered System interoperates and describe how they interoperate.

r) Describe your system's user interface. Is there more than one interface? Do you provide a Web-based interface?

s) Describe your company's involvement, if any, in the Z39.50 and ILL Protocol Implementors' Groups and your strategies for future developments related to Z39.50 and the ILL Protocol (ISO 10160/1).

t) How adaptable is the tendered System to future changes in requirements, eg addition of new data elements or new protocol messages required by changing standards?

u) In addition to the above questions, Tenderers are also required to answer all questions in Sections 5.10.1 to 5.10.13 as applicable to this Configuration.

4.4.6 Links to other configurations

The National ILL Utility will require data to be transferred from and to various other services and systems. The following links are sought:

a) to database hosting systems and citation databases

b) to the National Bibliographic Utility (Configuration #1) and other sources of information about where items are held or from which source it is available

c) to local interlending and document request management systems, other interlibrary loan and document request management systems, other ILL utilities, regional networks, and other document suppliers

d) to document delivery transmission systems;

e) to the Administrative Support System (Configuration #5)


Return to Start or Continue to Chapter 4-5
About This Site | Copyright | Privacy | Accessibility | Site Map | Site Search | Content A-Z | Contact Us