MIME Types for Use with the ISO ILL Protocol
draft-needleman-mime-ill-02

INTERNET DRAFT       EXPIRES in six months        INTERNET DRAFT

Internet Draft                                  Ruth Moulton
Category: Informational                         United Kingdom
                                                Mark Needleman
                                                University of California

November 1998

                MIME Types for Use with the ISO ILL Protocol
                        <draft-needleman-mime-ill-txt.02>

Status of This Memo

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Distribution of this document is unlimited.

Abstract

This memorandum describes a set of MIME types for use with the ISO
Interlibrary Loan Protocol (ISO 10160/10161). Two MIME types are specified
below.

 The first is a media type to carry objects which are  BER [BER]  encoded
ISO ILL Protocol Data Units (PDU's). BER are the basic Encoding Rules used
to encode  PDU's which have been described using ASN.1 (Abstract Syntax
Notation 1) [ASN.1] .

The second is for use with the associated document delivery instructions.
Document Delivery Instructions (DDI) is an emerging protocol which enables
automatic electronic delivery of items. It allows a request management
system (which might have received a request for an item via the ISO
Interlibrary Loan Protocol (ISO 10160/10161))  to pass details of the
request, item, and delivery, to a delivery module, and to receive back
reports on the delivery process or arrival of an item. It is currently
being submitted to the ISO TC46/SC4/WG4 committee for approval as an ISO
standard.

Registration Information

Media type name: application
Media subtype name:  iso-10161-ill-1 - for BER encoded ISO ILL APDU's

Media type name:  application
Media subtype name:  ill-ddi - For associated Document Delivery Instructions

Required Parameter:  transfer-encoding

For BER-encoded PDU's or DDI's, the only current legal value of this
parameter is:

 iso-8825-ber

The transfer-encoding parameter describes the way the PDU has been encoded
before being submitted to the transport service (in this case MIME/RFC822).
The two protocols described in this RFC specify their APDU's using ASN.1
(ISO 8824:1990) and the most common way of encoding ASN.1 packets is to use
the Basic Encoding Rules (BER ISO 8825)

The parameter is included to allow future use of these MIME types with
other encoding schemes. As an example, the ISO 10161 standard also
describes an encoding method using EDIFACT. In the future, other schemes
might also be employed. (Since the EDIFACT encoding is not currently in use
amongst the ISO 10161 and DDI communities, a value for the
transfer-encoding parameter to describe it is not being registered in this
RFC.)

Optional  parameter: iso-10161-apdu-type

Valid values are:

ILL-Request
Forward-Notification
Shipped
ILL-Answer
Conditional-Reply
Cancel
Cancel-Reply
Received
Recall
Returned
Checked-In
Overdue
Renew
Renew-Answer
Lost
Damaged
Message
Status-Query
Status-Or-Error-Report
Expired

This parameter is optional and can be provided for informational or
diagnostic purposes. The value of the PDU or DDI type can be determined
from the actual data sent. The use and format of the PDU's and DDI's is
defined in the relevant protocol documents which describe them.

Examples

Content-Type: application/iso-10161-ill-1;  transfer-encoding=iso-8825-ber;
iso-10161-apdu-type=Recall;

Content-Type: application/ill-ddi;  transfer-encoding=iso-8825-ber;

Encoding

Since BER encoded material is binary in nature, some form of encoding is
needed when 7bit or 8bit transport mechanisms are employed.

The recommended  encoding for BER encoded PDU's  is Base64

PDU's per Message

When used to send BER encoded PDU's or DDI's. Each MIME body part will
carry at most one BER encoded PDU or DDI. However, a single MIME message
containing multiple body parts can be used to transport more than one BER
PDU and or DDI.

Security Considerations

There are no known security risks associated with transmitting BER encoded
PDU's in general. However, a particular BER encoded PDU or DDI may have
security considerations that make it inappropriate for transmittal through
public data networks unless appropriate protection mechanisms, like
encryption, are used. Such a situation might occur, for example, when
organizations are exchanging documents that contain secure or classified
information and it is necessary to keep information about both the material
being exchanged and the exchanging partners confidential.

Interoperability Considerations

BER is an international standard for encoding data meant to be transferred
between two systems that may store data in different local formats
internally [BER].

References

[BER] ISO/IEC 8825:1990 Information Technology - Open Systems
Interconnection - Specification of Basic Encoding Rules for Abstract Syntax
Notation One (ASN.1)

[ASN.1] ISO/IEC 8824:1990 Information Technology - Open Systems
Interconnection - Specification of Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1)

ISO 10160:1997 Information  and Documentation - Open Systems
Interconnection - Interlibrary Loan Application Service Definition

ISO 10161-1:1997 Information and Documentation - Open Systems
Interconnection - Interlibrary Loan Application Protocol Specification -
Part 1: Protocol Specification

Additional Information:

The National Library of Canada has been designated the maintenance agency
for the ISO ILL protocol. For more information on this MIME type contact:

                             Barbara Shuh
                             Library Network Specialist
                             Information Analysis and Standards
                             Information and Technology Services
                             National Library of Canada

                             Telephone: (819) 994-6969
                             Fax: (819) 994-6835

                           email: barbara.shuh@nlc-bnc.ca

                             Mailing Address:
                             395 Wellington Street
                             Ottawa, Ontario CANADA
                             K1A 0N4

Authors' Addresses

Ruth Moulton
Consultant
65 Tetherdown
London N10 1NH
United Kingdom
Phone: +44 (181) 883 5823
Email: ruth@muswell.demon.co.uk

Mark Needleman
University of California
California Digital Library
1111 Franklin Street Room 7305
Oakland, CA 94607-5200
USA
Phone: +1 (510) 987-0530
Fax: +1 (510) 763-2471
Email: Mark.Needleman@ucop.edu