The NISO circulation interchange protocol (NCIP) - an XML based standard

Describes the NISO circulation interchange protocol (NCIP) and some of the design decisions that were made in developing it. When designing a protocol of the scale and scope of NCIP, certain decisions about what technologies to employ need to be made. Often there are multiple competing technologies that can be employed to accomplish the same functionality, and there are both positive and negative reasons for the choice of any particular one. Focuses specifically on the areas on which the protocol would be supported. Gives particular emphasis to the decision to choose XML as the encoding technology for the protocol messages. One of the main design goals for NCIP was to try to strike the appropriate balance between ease of implementation and providing appropriate functionality. This functionality includes that needed to support both application areas that the committee could anticipate would use the protocol in the short term, and new applications that might be developed in the future.