Web services to link interlibrary software with OCLC WorldShare
| Date | 09 September 2014 |
| Pages | 483-494 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-12-2013-0158 |
| Published date | 09 September 2014 |
| Author | Josep-Manuel Rodríguez-Gairín,Marta Somoza-Fernández |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Web services to link interlibrary
software with OCLC WorldShare
Josep-Manuel Rodrı
´guez-Gairı
´n and Marta Somoza-Fern
andez
Department of Library and Information Science, University of Barcelona,
Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of web services to interconnect the GTBib
interlibrary loan (ILL) program with the OCLC WorldShare platfor m.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors describe the current problem of duplication of
procedures in libraries that have added their collections to the OCLC WorldCat catalog in recent years
and are therefore more likely to receive ILL requests through the WorldShare platform.
Findings – A solution that uses web services to insert and retrieve requests between the two systems
is presented. Autonomous agents periodically check the status of the requests and keep them updated
and synchronized. These agents also inform the library staff of any variation or inconsistency that is
detected.
Practical implications – This technology reduces process management time by making it
unnecessary to introduce the request data in both systems. Agents are used to check the consistency
of statuses between the two systems, thus avoiding errors and omissions and improving the efficiency
of the whole ILL process.
Originality/value – This paper describes in detail the technical aspects of the development as
a reference for the development of future applications.
Keywords Inter-library loan, Document delivery, Interlibrary lending
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
The increase in global scholarly communication involves not only idea sharing,
co-authorship, and conference partic ipation, but also interlibrary cooperation .
Prominent among international library activity is interlibrary loan (ILL). Because
the market for library software is often national o r regional, success in internationa l
ILL faces a potential obstacle when different software systems arein place. The concept
of web services offers a solution.
A web service is a software tec hnology that facilitates the exchange of data between
two applications using a set of protocols and open standards that allow them to
interoperate. Concepts such as web services description lan guage (WSDL), extensible
markup language (XML), simple object access protocol (SOAP) and representational
state transfer (REST) are the terminolog y associated with these services.
In a web service, one of the appli cations acts as a service provider and the other
acts as a service requester. The communication takes place through the World Wide
Web using http and the data are structured using XML. The exchange of messages is
encapsulated using SOAP. Since the two applications may have been developed by
different companies, the whole process must be highly structured. In the first step, the
service provider shows the user the language and a list of the operations or data that it
can offer: this is done in WSDL. As this computer terminology can be particularly
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Received 17 December 2013
Revised 3 February 2014
12 March 2014
Accepted 18 March 2014
Library Hi Tech
Vol.32 No. 3, 2014
pp. 483-494
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-12-2013-0158
This research was funded by the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants
(AGAUR), in the context of the project “ Cultura i continguts digitals” (SGR-177/2009).
483
Web services to
link interlibrary
software
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