ILS Interop

A place to work on developing an infrastructure for interoperating between integrated library systems and other systems, but primarily discovery layers such as Blacklight, VUFind, Summon, WorldCat Local, SOPAC, Scriblio, and others.

See our mailing list at http://groups.google.com/groups/ils-di.

This group worked to create a spec / recommendation for a set of functions that ILS systems would implement in order to support 3rd party discovery systems.

The work of this group is archived on the DLF website (final report).

List of functionality

Level 1: Basic Discovery Interfaces This level represents a minimal set of functions that are easily implemented and essential to support applications that provide discovery outside the ILS.

• HarvestBibliographicRecords (Data Aggregation, section 5.3.1)
• HarvestExpandedRecords (Data Aggregation, section 5.3.2)
• GetAvailability (Real Time Search, section 6.3.1)
• GoToBibliographicRequestPage (OPAC interaction, section 8.3.1)

Level 2: Elementary OPAC supplement This level describes a set of functions needed for a reasonably broad range of practical discovery applications that operate in tandem with the OPAC. All of the above, plus

• HarvestAuthorityRecords (Data Aggregation, section 5.3.3)
• HarvestHoldingsRecords (Data Aggregation, section 5.3.4)
• GetRecords (Real Time Search, section 6.3.2)
• Search (Real Time Search, section 6.3.3)
• Scan (Real Time Search, section 6.3.4)
• GetAuthorityRecords (Real Time Search, section 6.3.5)
• Either OutputRewritablePage or OutputIntermediateFormat (OPAC Interaction, sections 8.3.2 and 8.3.3)

Level 3: Elementary OPAC alternative This level describes a set of functions needed for a practical discovery application that can operate completely independently of the OPAC. All of the above, plus

• LookupPatron (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.1)
• AuthenticatePatron (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.2)
• GetPatronInfo (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.3)
• GetPatronStatus (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.4)
• GetServices (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.5)
• RenewLoan (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.6)
• HoldTitle (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.7)
• HoldItem (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.8)
• CancelHold (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.9)
• RecallItem (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.10)
• CancelRecall (Patron Functionality, section 7.2.11)

Level 4: Robust/domain specific discovery platforms This level describes functions required to build useful discovery applications beyond the elementary level. All of the above, plus

• SearchCourseReserves (Real Time Search, section 6.3.6; for academic libraries)
• Explain (Real Time Search, section 6.3.7)
• Both OutputRewritablePage and OutputIntermediateFormat (OPAC Interaction, sections 8.3.2 and 8.3.3)