About Wise SIP2 protocol
General
SIP2 is an international protocol for exchanging messages between vending machines and library systems. This protocol was developed by 3M. The main advantage of this protocol is that most vending machine and library management software suppliers support this protocol.
However, the company 3M has stopped developing and supporting this protocol. A possible successor is NCIP, which is also used by OCLC for other services.
SIP2 functionalities
SIP2 offers the following functionalities:
- Selling of depreciated items: when checking out a depreciated item, it is possible to sell it to the patron.
- When the patron checks out an already borrowed item, ask to confirm whether the patron wants to borrow the item again.
- Confirm that items have an attachment.
- Handling attachments as configured in Wise.
- Confirm items are damaged.
- Checking out damaged items as configured in Wise.
- Work with duplicate loan periods.
- Improved error handling.
- Improved design of receipts.
- Separate renewal dialog: see borrowed items, see if item can be renewed, what the new loan period will be and see the renew costs.
- Patron notifications: within Wise you can set individual or general notifications for a patron. These will be shown on a vending machine.
License for SIP2+ module
The functionalities above are available for SIP2 suppliers through a specific SIP2+ license. These options will only work if the software of the SIP2 supplier has been updated.
Wise has several possibilities for communicating with third-party machines/services using the SIP2 protocol. OCLC provides Wise through a licensing model to libraries and third-party SIP suppliers. The third-party supplier arranges the functional and physical access of the SIP2 machines to the OCLC Wise system (and associated licenses).
The contents and operation of the SIP2 protocol are based on the description by 3M (SIP2 Protocol Definition version 2.12 – April 2006). The SIP2 protocol defines the various messages and structures of these messages. The operation and usage of these messages are not described in the SIP2 protocol.
Besides the default operation and possibilities within the normal SIP2, OCLC has developed extensions for the protocol (called SIP2+). These extensions must be controlled from Wise and are expected to work within the SIP2 machine: the supplier must have updated the software of their SIP2 machines. In order to use the extensions the supplier must have enabled the SIP2+ licenses.
Libraries or third-party suppliers looking to integrate SIP2 machines with Wise should contact busdev@oclc.org.
Capacity
OCLC advises third-party SIP suppliers about the required server and network capacity. The loan number is an important factor in this advice. The extensions of the services and dialogs have an impact on the performance of the library system. OCLC also works under the assumption that the SIP2 suppliers make fair use the access they have been granted to the Wise system. The available capacity is based on the expected average usage.
To give third-party SIP suppliers an overview of the server load of SIP2 applications, Wise counts the usage of SIP2-dialogs per branch each day on each port (machine) per dialog number. This way, suppliers can decide for themselves what the load per SIP2 supplier is. For bigger Wise systems, suppliers are advised to use a calculation model where the SIP2 dialogs are included.