SIF Agent for Circulation Plus™
|
If your district relies on the Circulation Plus™ library automation system
from Follett Software Company, SIF is the perfect way to share information
with other SIF Compliant applications.
Changes made in your SIF-compliant student information system are automatically delivered in real-time to
Circulation Plus, and library patron status information is automatically delivered to subscribing
applications that support the Schools Interoperability Framework.
| | |
|
As a partner of Follett Software Company, Edustructures is the only company
authorized to deliver a SIF Compliant solution for Circulation Plus customers.
| | |
How It Works
|
The SIF Agent for Circulation Plus - known as the Follett Integration Service
(FIS) - is a Windows service that works behind the scenes to keep your patron
database in sync with student, staff, and picture data published by the student
information system. The agent is installed on a Windows workstation at each
school, usually at the library checkout desk or another computer where the
Circulation Plus client applications are run from.
| | |
|
When active, the agent registers itself with a single school zone managed by the
district's zone integration server. As changes in student, staff, and picture
data are made in the student information system, the Follett Integration Service
is notified of each event in real-time. It automatically updates the Patron
Maintenance database accordingly. The agent can respond to Add, Change, and
Delete events for students, staff, and student picture objects. Administrators
can control which types of events are processed by customizing the Access
Control permissions of the zone integration server.
| | |
|
The Follett Integration Service can also publish library patron status
information to interested applications. When a SIF Request is received, it
queries the patron database for circulation data and returns the results to the
requesting application via SIF. With SIF, data warehouse and reporting systems,
telephony applications, and portals can now easily extract circulation details
and summary information from Circulation Plus in an industry-standard way.
| | |
SIF Data Objects
| The following SIF Data Objects are currently supported: | | |
- LibraryPatronStatus
- StaffPersonal
- StudentPersonal
- StudentPicture
| | |
Features
- SIF Compliant
- Allows administrators to map fields published by the StudentPersonal and StaffPersonal objects to the four user-defined fields for each patron (Location 1, Location 2, User 1, and User 2)
- Easy to install and configure at each school
- One-click synchronization procedure imports students, staff, and pictures from the student information system and matches objects with existing patrons using the ID or Barcode field.
- Does not require that the FIS be running at all times. Libraries may shut down the workstation nightly and any changes pending will be processed the next time the agent is active.
- Cost-effective per-school licensing
| | |
Requirements
- Circulation Plus: Version 5.0 and later
- Operating System: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, or Windows 98
- Edustructures SIFWorks Enterprise ZIS or other zone integration server
- SIF 1.1 or later
- A SIF-enabled student information system or other provider of student, staff, and/or student picture data
| | |
Limitations
- To synchronize student and staff records with an existing patron database, the Follett Integration Service requires that each patron have an ID or Barcode that matches the student or staff number published by the SIS. Districts are encouraged to review the ID and Barcode fields of existing patrons before installing the agent.
- Because the Follett Integration Service does not process student enrollment data (i.e. StudentSchoolEnrollment objects), it cannot determine which schools the students published by the SIS are enrolled in. This limitation means the agent works only with SIS systems that are able to publish data to individual "school zones". If synchronizing with a single district-wide zone, all students and staff in the district will be imported into each school's patron database.
| | |
|
|
|
