The eXtensible Catalog (XC) project is working to design and develop a set of open-source applications that will provide libraries with an alternative way to reveal their collections to library users.

Please visit our project website at http://www.extensiblecatalog.org for a more complete overview of the eXtensible Catalog project and the software we are creating.

NCIP Toolkit

The NCIP Toolkit will allow XC user-interface clients to interact with an ILS for authentication requests, live circulation status lookups, and circulation requests. XC uses the NCIP standard protocol to accomplish this. Once the NCIP Toolkit has been successfully installed alongside a compatible ILS, that ILS will be able to interoperate both with XC and non-XC NCIP clients.

The NCIP Toolkit is intended to be installed alongside a /compatible ILS and act as an intermediary between NCIP /clients and the ILS. When a client sends an NCIP request to the toolkit, the request is parsed and sent to the ILS using its proprietary interface. The response is then translated back into the NCIP protocol and returned to the client. XC user interface clients will use NCIP to provide user interface functionality that requires real-time interaction with the ILS database.

The XC Project plans to include NCIP toolkit drivers for a wide range of popular commercial and open-source integrated library systems.

Documentation for the NCIP Toolkit can be found at the links below:

• NCIP Release notes: http://xcnciptoolkit.googlecode.com/files/NCIP_Toolkit_Release_Notes_v0.5.3.pdf
• NCIP Developer Documentation: http://xcnciptoolkit.googlecode.com/files/NCIPToolkitDeveloperDocumentation.pdf
• NCIP User Documentation: http://xcnciptoolkit.googlecode.com/files/NCIPToolkitUserDocumentation.pdf

The software code repository for the NCIP Toolkit is: http://code.google.com/p/xcnciptoolkit

NCIP standard 2.0 - the work continues

Development work is starting that will allow the NCIP Toolkit to support version 2.0 of the NCIP protocol. The software code repository for the NCIP Toolkit version 2.0 is: http://code.google.com/p/xcncip2toolkit.