An Introduction to the ISO InterLibrary Loan Application Standards

There are three individual standards in the suite of ILL application standards:

ISO 10160:1997 Information and Documentation - Open Systems Interconnection - Interlibrary Loan Application Service Definition

ISO catalogue description:

http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=22247

ISO 10161-1:1997 Information and Documentation - Open Systems Interconnection - Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification - Part 1: Protocol Specification

ISO catalogue description:

http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=22248

ISO 10161-2: Information and Documentation - Open Systems Interconnection - Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification - Part 2: PICS Proforma

ISO catalogue description:

http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=21389

The Service Definition and Protocol Specifications, ISO 10160 and ISO 10161 were approved as international standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1991 and was first published in 1993. Second editions of both standarde have been published in 1997.

The PICS Proforma, ISO 10161-2, was approved by ISO in 1995 and published in the summer of 1997.

Check here for information on where to purchase ISO standards.

TC46/SC4/WG4: the ISO Working Group

ISO/TC46/SC4 is the ISO Subcommittee responsible for the maintenance of the Interlibrary Loan Application Standards.

To permit continuous updating of the ILL Application Standards, a Maintenance Agency and a Registration Authority for these standards were established by TC46 in 1997, with the responsibility for both delegated to the National Library of Canada (name changed 2004 to Library and Archives Canada).

Maintenance Agency (MA)

The Interlibrary Loan Application Standards Maintenance Agency is responsible for updating the standard, preparing and maintaining defect reports and developing amendments for the Interlibrary Loan Application standards (ISO 10160, ISO 10161-1 and ISO 10161-2).

Procedures for submitting Defect Reports and Amendments are covered on the Maintenance Agency Procedures page.

Existing Defect Reports and Amendments are accessible under the edition of the standard to which they refer. See pages for:

ISO 10160
ISO 10161-1
ISO 10161-2

The MA maintains a list of Implementor Agreements and provides written clarifications of issues of interpretation of the standards.

Registration Authority (RA)

As Registration Authority for the Interlibrary Loan Protocol, Library and Archives Canada maintains a register of the data types defined external to the Protocol Specification's ASN.1

Profiles

Standards bodies, users groups and implementors' groups develop agreements based on a combination of standards, as well as the selection of options within each standard, to support a specific functions, such as interlibrary loan messaging. These agreements, known as Functional Profiles, provide implementors with a standardized set of agreed choices that will allow software products to interwork with other software products designed to support the same profile.

Various types of profiles (International Standardized Profiles, International Registered Profiles, and other ILL application profiles developed by specific user groups) have been developed for the Interlibrary Loan Application standards.