Information and documentation. Open Systems Interconnection. Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification. Protocol specification

2Scope / Description

This part of ISO 10161 defines the protocol for the interlibrary loan application service element (ASE). It specifies the behavior that a system must exhibit in order to participate in the provision of the ISO interlibrary loan service. It provides a formal statement of the rules of behavior for two or more entities participating in an interlibrary loan transaction. It specifies: a) the actions to be taken on request service primitives received from users of the interlibrary loan service, b) the actions to be taken on application protocol data units (APDUs) received, and c) the actions to be taken as a result of events within the local system. It provides (in clause 9) the specification of the abstract syntax required to communicate interlibrary loan protocol APDUs. It states the conformance requirements that implementers of this protocol must meet (in clause 10). The scope of the interlibrary loan protocol is limited to the interconnection of systems; it does not specify or restrict the possible implementations of the interface within a computer system. Computer systems may range from stand-alone workstations to mainframes. This part of ISO 10161 is intended for use by libraries, information utilities such as union catalog centers, and any other system that handles bibliographic information. These systems can participate in interlibrary loan transactions in the roles of requester (i.e., the initiator of an interlibrary loan request), responder (i.e., the provider of bibliographic material or information), and/or intermediary (i.e., an agent acting on behalf of the requester to find a suitable responder). A variety of interconnection topologies are supported, ranging from simple two-party interactions to multi-party interactions.