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If you use Circulation integration through NCIP or 3M SIP you can communicate directly with the local circulation system to determine status of materials, status of patrons, place holds on materials, etc.
The interfaces are designed to work both when VDX is being used as a local document delivery and resource sharing administration system and when it is being used as a resource sharing utility for a consortia.
Both NCIP and 3M SIP can be employed for this integration.
All NCIP messaging is initiated by VDX rather than by the circulation system because at this time all NCIP circulation implementations are being built to respond to NCIP messages rather than initiate them. This means that:
There are currently no supplier-side circulation initiated overdues or recalls; this will continue to be handled as you do now.
There is currently no borrower (requester)-side circulation initiated renewal requests or cancellations; this will be done through ZPORTAL.
Patron authentication against local library systems.
At requesting libraries, creating temporary bibliographic and item records, renewing items, and checking them in prior to return are all automated.
At supplying libraries, holding items, checking them in and out, renewing them, and cancelling the holds are all automated.
Locations can select which circulation services are available to VDX for their location , allowing libraries to retain manual control of any step if desired.
NCIP messages are logged in the request's log messages to maintain an audit trail of ILL-to-Circulation messaging.
Log messages reporting on circulation / ILL interaction for the current request are displayed at the foot of the Request form under NCIP Messages. For example:
Circ Action Reserve Title for User has succeeded.
Hold on item nnn needs to be manually cancelled.
Failed to connect to Circ Server at IP Address nnn.nn.nnn.nn.
Circulation Log Messages provides full definitions.
The system manager can configure how many times VDX retries a failed Circulation transaction, and the actual time intervals between retries. See System Administration online help.