National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 60 | December 2002


Kinetica Document Delivery Comes of Age
Working with LIDDAS in a Changing Environment

 

National Library Interlending Services staff member Maria Milligan creates an interlibrary loan request using the KDD web interface
National Library Interlending Services staff member Maria Milligan creates an interlibrary loan request using the KDD web interface

Interlending between Australian libraries has been supported by the National Library of Australia via an automated system since 1989. This enables Australian libraries to request materials from other libraries, supply material to other libraries and manage payments efficiently.

The significance of the provision of an automated interlibrary loan service for Australian libraries has been described by John Arfield, University Librarian at the University of Western Australia, as ‘the single most important mechanism for managing document requesting and supplying’. This can be demonstrated by the fact that Kinetica Document Delivery (KDD) enables interlibrary loan and document delivery services to occur for more than 500 member libraries, with an average of 8500 transactions per day.

However, since the implementation of KDD, a number of alternative interlibrary loan products have been developed. These are now being acquired by Australian libraries. These systems enable libraries to configure their systems to best meet the specific needs of their organisations. Libraries have often had duplicate workflows to accommodate different messaging methods, e.g. KDD, fax and mail.

From 9 December 2002 KDD will support the ISO Interlibrary Loan Protocol (based on the International Standards Organisation (ISO) Interlibrary Loan Application Standards, 10160 and 10161–1). This will enable KDD to communicate with other interlibrary loan systems. KDD has undergone an interoperability trial in the test environment with LIDDAS Project participants, and will be interoperating with these sites in the production environment. (The LIDDAS project was undertaken by the Australian Vice Chancellors’ Committee, and encompassed the provision of an open systems platform which enabled interconnectivity between individual systems to facilitate resource sharing between the participating universities. This project is based on the use of the Fretwell-Downing Virtual Document Exchange (VDX) system, which also underpins KDD).

Kinetica Document Delivery Gateway

Kinetica Document Delivery Gateway
ISO ILL Compliant Server
ISO ILL Compliant Server

Interoperability with KDD is essential to these libraries to enable them to source and request materials effectively, to manage their interlibrary loans efficiently, and to remain an integral part of the Australian interlending environment. In the words of John Arfield: ‘Enabling our VDX system and KDD to interoperate is crucial to maintaining and increasing the efficiency of our services. It will also have significant benefits for our users in improving the effectiveness and value of document delivery services from their perspective.’

KDD will be able to exploit the new functionality by investigating arrangements with other ILL suppliers, and extending the options available to KDD members. Once KDD is operating on the new software, we will be exploring the many possibilities that the added functionality allows.

Australian libraries will benefit significantly from the new software. Requesting and supplying interlibrary loans will be much easier; the interface will be significantly improved, incorporating a number of recommendations made by KDD users. It will also herald a major step forward with libraries able to use the service seamlessly, particularly the KDD payments service, from their own local systems.
—Margaret Kennedy

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