WebZ and Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Contents

Introduction
Interlibrary Loan Process
WebZ's ILL Support
ILL Enhancements Introduced in SiteSearch 4.1.2
   Compatibility with IPIG-Compliant ILL Services
   ILL Profiling
   ILL Double Check
SiteSearch ILL Documentation

Introduction

This document provides an overview of the interlibrary loan (ILL) process, describes WebZ's capabilities for creating ILL requests initiated by SiteSearch users, highlights ILL enhancements introduced in SiteSearch 4.1.2, and provides links to SiteSearch ILL documentation.

WebZ's ILL implementation complies with the ISO-10161 protocol and the Internet Library Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) profile. See SiteSearch Interoperability for more information.

Interlibrary Loan Process

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) allows your patrons to request materials or a copy of an item, such as a journal article, owned by other libraries. One example of an ILL process is the following:

1. A patron locates a resource that is not available in his/her library system.
2. The patron submits a request to the library (the "borrowing library") to obtain material via ILL.
3. The borrowing library may review the ILL request.
4. If the request complies with library policy, the library submits the ILL request to a potential lender (the "lending library").
5. The lending library decides whether to loan (or copy) the requested material and informs the borrowing library of its decision.
6. The lending library sends the material to the borrowing library for pick up by the patron.
7. If the patron needs to return the material, he/she returns it to the borrowing library.
8. The borrowing library returns the material to the lending library.

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WebZ ILL Support

Many ILL activities can be automated. You can configure WebZ to allow patrons to submit ILL requests electronically to an ILL service for items they find from searches conducted with SiteSearch.

WebZ automates steps 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the ILL processing overview described in the Interlibrary Loan Process section of this document.

• A patron locates a resource in a specific database using SiteSearch.
• The patron initiates an ILL request for the resource.
• Beginning with SiteSearch 4.1.2, if WebZ is configured for ILL double check, it searches for the item requested in a designated "home" library. Depending on the double check option selected, WebZ may or not may allow the patron to submit an ILL request if the home library contains the item.
• Assuming that the patron may submit an ILL request for the item, WebZ displays an ILL request form for the user. The form may contain some default data and information about the patron from your authentication database.
• The patron completes and then submits the ILL request form.
• WebZ performs basic validation on the request. If necessary, WebZ asks the patron to correct items that did not pass its validation checks.
• Based on the ILL option configured for the database where the patron located the resource, WebZ sends the ILL request to a designated e-mail address, the OCLC ILL Direct Request Service, or beginning with SiteSearch 4.1.2, another ILL service that complies with the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) Profile.
• WebZ sends a confirmation message to the patron or informs the patron that it could not submit the request.

At this point, WebZ's involvement with the ILL process ends.

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ILL Enhancements Introduced in SiteSearch 4.1.2

Compatibility with IPIG-Compliant ILL Services

SiteSearch 4.1.2 is compatible with a number of ILL services that conform to the ILL Protocol Implementors Group (IPIG) profile.

• OCLC ILL Direct Request
• PALS, by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities/Project for Automated Library Services (MnSCU/PALS)
• WINGS™ Request Management Software, by Pigasus Software, Inc.
• ILL Manager, by the Research Libraries Group (RLG)
• Library.Request, by The Library Corporation (TLC)

SiteSearch 4.1.2 formats ILL requests using the ILL service type appropriate to each service. SiteSearch 4.1.2 supports three ILL service types: ISOILL, EMAIL, and MIME_EMAIL.

SiteSearch 4.1.2 provides vendor-specific ILL server configuration files, sample ILL request forms, and ILL verbs for the IPIG-compliant ILL services listed above.

You can configure your WebZ environment to work with one ISOILL verb, one MIME e-mail verb, and one e-mail verb per interface style. However, by using ILL profiling and the Access component, you can use additional ILL services by associating institutions with the ILL services they use on a per-database basis.

ILL Profiling

SiteSearch 4.1.2 introduces ILL profiling. ILL profiling uses the WebZ Access component and an authorization database (accessdb or your own patron authorization database) to provide flexibility in the way that WebZ processes and routes ILL requests. It provides institution-level control over ILL processing by allowing institutions to specify the ILL service to use on a per-database basis. Library consortia or other institutions that share a single WebZ environment to provide patrons with access to multiple library catalogs may find profiling particularly useful.

You specify this information in the WebZ Access database, accessdb. In SiteSearch 4.1.2, accessdb's authos table has an instkey column instead of an instsym column. The instkey column is the new link to the inst table. Another new column in the inst table, illdbkey, links an institution to a new table, instdbill. This table contains the ILL services that each institution wishes to use for each database in the WebZ environment for which you have enabled patron-initiated ILL.

ILL Double Check

ILL double check is an optional feature introduced in SiteSearch 4.1.2, and is demonstrated in its WebZ Out-of-the-Box Interface (OBI), version 1.

Double check allows you to configure WebZ to determine whether a particular library catalog (a "home" library) holds an item before allowing a patron to request the item via ILL. If the database searched contains the item, the double check screen (<WebZ_root>/htdocs/obiv1/html/doublecheck.html) appears and shows the library's holdings for the item.

For double check to function properly, the database to be searched needs:

• an ISBN and/or ISSN index. The index must have the same index abbreviation (value of the abb variable in the [index definition] section of its database configuration file) as the corresponding index in the database where the patron located the item.
• holdings information
• double check formats in the [Formats] section of its database configuration file

There are two ways to configure double check:

• by style, using new variables in the [defaults] section of the interface style configuration file to specify the database to search and whether to allow the patron to request the item if the database contains the item.
• institution-specific, using new columns in the WebZ Access database, accessdb, to specify the database to search and whether to allow the patron to request the item if the database contains the item by institution. By associating patron logins (autho/password combinations) with an institution, the accessdb structure allows you to specify a patron's home library as the library to search.

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SiteSearch ILL Documentation

The following table lists documents that provide more detailed information about using WebZ's ILL capabilities.

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