Bill and Melinda Gates Opportunity Online Hardware Grants

 

Choose to Read Ohio

 

Connecting to Collections

 

Digital Collections: Opening History

 

Find Help in Tough Times

 

KnowItNow24x7

 

LearningExpress Library

 

Ohio eBook Project

 

Ohio Libraries Share: MORE

 

Ohio Memory

 

Stark County Job and Career Workshop

 

State Librarian Library Visits

 

State Library New Website Design

 

Talking Books

 

Serving Every Ohioan Library (SEO) Center

 

Spotlight on WebJunction Ohio Courses: Online Video

 

WebJunction Ohio

 

Books added to the State Library Circulating Collection in 2009

 

2009: Selected Electronic Titles from the Ohio eBook Project

By Nicole Merriman, State Library of Ohio

 

Ohio Libraries Share: MORE (OLS: MORE) is an interlibrary loan program used by more than 100 public and school libraries in Ohio. Libraries can share materials amongst themselves, delivering materials to Ohio citizens that aren’t available in their local libraries. Consortia such as OLS: MORE are important for libraries at all times, but especially important in these tough economic times when budgets are tight.

 

One limitation of the software that runs OLS: MORE is that libraries need to process interlibrary loan transactions in both the OLS: MORE system and their own local catalog. This is known as double entry. In 2009, several libraries started using NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP), a protocol that takes several steps out of the process and therefore saves those libraries time and money. NISO is the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit organization that manages technical standards. NCIP is a standard that enables the exchange of circulation related data between disparate library systems and applications. In Ohio, it allows library catalogs to more seamlessly communicate with the software running OLS: MORE, thereby saving staff time to focus on other tasks.

 

Several libraries have successfully implemented NCIP. These include the Council of Ashtabula County Libraries (including Ashtabula County District Library, Grand Valley Public Library and affiliated schools) and the Serving Every Ohioan (SEO) Library Center in Caldwell, Ohio. Also implementing NCIP on a wider scale are the many school libraries using INFOhio’s library catalog software. According to Juanita Markham at INFOhio, thirteen schools currently participating in OLS: MORE through INFOhio have been migrated to use NCIP. Juanita also reports that migrating to NCIP was seamless to patrons and only a few changes were required of library staff. School librarians using NCIP are happy to have fewer steps for most transactions. According to Suzanne Roberts at Southern Local Schools, “NCIP has greatly cut down on time. I'd say the transition has been very smooth. Thank heavens for NCIP!”  Sue Rice at Evergreen Local Schools wrote, “This is Christmas.” How appropriate for the December issue of this newsletter!