Alma interoperability with Relais ILL

Effective January 1, 2020, Ex Libris will no longer support Transport Layer Security (TLS) versions 1.0 and 1.1 and will move to TLS 1.2.  Ex Libris’ move to TLS 1.2 will mean changes for your library’s Relais ILL and Alma interoperability.

As of January 1, 2020:

• If your library uses Relais ILL’s Windows client, the interoperability will no longer work for NCIP Lookup User, NCIP Accept Item, CheckOut Item, and CheckIn Item messages due to its lack of support for TLS 1.2.  However, if you wish to maintain your Alma system’s interoperability via NCIP, you can use the Relais ILL web-based staff portal, which does support TLS 1.2 and can process requests for NCIP Lookup User, NCIP Accept Item, CheckOut Item, and CheckIn Item messages without issue.
   
• If your library uses Relais ILL’s Windows client for NCIP Recall and Renewal messaging with Alma you will lose the ability to initiate this functionality.  The Relais ILL web-based staff portal does not include coding  to support the initiation of the RecallItem message to Alma as a requesting library, nor does it include coding to support the initiation of RenewlItem message to Alma when acting as the supplying library.  Please also see the bullet below.
   
• If your library uses Relais ILL’s web-based staff portal for the NCIP Recall and Renewal messaging, the Relais ILL web-based NCIP Responder will continue to support processing Alma-initiated RecallItem as a supplying library and Alma-initiated RenewalItem as a requesting library.
  • As noted above, the Relais ILL web-based staff portal does not support the initiation of the RecallItem message to Alma as a requesting library, nor does it support the initiation of RenewlItem message to Alma when acting as the supplying library.

Our development focus continues to be to add new functionality to the web-based Relais ILL staff portal.  Therefore, in the coming year, we will evaluate adding the lost NCIP Recall and Renewal messaging functionality previously available from the Windows client to the staff portal.