1. Integrating III/Sierra with ILLiad and Relais/BorrowDirect
Eric Bivona, Senior Programmer
Digital Library Technologies Group, Dartmouth College Library
(design by Dennis Grady, Library Web Team)

2. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
OVERVIEW
Innovative Interfaces, Inc. is our ILS provider: Sierra, previously it was Millennium.
Dartmouth is part of BorrowDirect, which is powered by Relais.
Dartmouth also uses ILLiad, from OCLC.
Long history of loading records into III programmatically.
BorrowDirect uses NCIP.
ILLiad does not.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

3. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
OBJECTIVES
Simplify workflows.
Make workflows more consistent.
Limit (human) copying of data.
Limit (human) interaction with systems.
Most of these are different versions of the same sentiment.
… interaction with [multiple] systems…
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

4. WORKFLOWS ILLiad Borrowing Receive item in ILLiad
Create item record in III
ILLiad notifies patron
Item sent to pickup location
Item on hold shelf for patron
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

5. WORKFLOWS BorrowDirect Borrowing Receive item in Relais
III NCIP creates ”virtual” item record
III notifies patron
Item sent to pickup location
“Virtual” item records are painful to deal with!
Item on hold shelf for patron
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

6. WORKFLOWS ILLiad Lending Choose transaction in ILLiad
Find item in the stacks
Create borrower in III (if needed)
Checkout item in III
Also returns; key point: scan item at least twice, into two different systems.
Mark item in ILLiad
Ship item out
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

7. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
THE PLAN
Create an ILLiad addon (in Lua) to convey transaction number and item barcode(s) to a web service.
The web service will use NCIP to a second web app that will create bib and item records in III.
With III/Sierra’s APIs we can also place holds on (new) items.
Lua is a light-weight, multi-paradigm programming language that is easy to embed.
Real, albeit small item records.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

8. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
ILLIAD ADDON
Code written in Lua, an embeddable extension language. 
Addons are installed into each ILLiad client.
After this code, a URL is constructed and the ILLiad/Lua runtime context is used to make the web request.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

9. ILLIAD ADDON Item barcode(s) are scanned in, then submitted.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

10. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
ADDON WEB APP
Takes data from ILLiad, plus the barcode(s), and makes an NCIP AcceptItem request.
$xact->update() is an ORM call to cache barcodes in the ILLiad transaction record.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

11. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
NCIP WEB APP
Processes NCIP AcceptItem requests, loading bib/item records into III, with patron holds.
Test NCIP AcceptItem request.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

12. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
THE REALIZATION
Local NCIP server only supports AcceptItem requests.
All other NCIP requests are passed through to III (LookupUser, LookupItem, CheckoutItem, CheckinItem).
BorrowDirect NCIP traffic can be routed through our NCIP server.
1: we have a long history of automatically loading records into III.
2: ILLiad addon web service can generate the Check{in,out}Item requests based on transaction statuses.
3: Slight addition in latency versus much less staff time dealing with “virtual” item records.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

13. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
THE OUTCOMES
Simpler, more consistent workflows (items only need to be dealt with in one system at any major point).
More consistent item handling at each circulation point.
Same notification system for all item handling (III).
More consistent hold shelf management.
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library

14. Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library
QUESTIONS ?
Eric Bivona, DLTG, Dartmouth College Library