NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NISO Z39.83): a standard in trial Available to Purchase

NISO (The National Information Standards Organization) has recently released the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NISO Z39.83) as a Draft Standard for Trial Use. This protocol defines a repertoire of messages and associated rules of syntax and semantics for use by applications: to perform the functions necessary to lend items; to provide controlled access to electronic resources; and to facilitate co‐operative management of these functions. It is intended to address conditions in which the application or applications that initiate the lending of items or control of access must acquire or transmit information about the user, items, and/or access that is essential to successful conclusion of the function. The article describes the reasons for the development of the standard and provides an overview of the services that it supports.