Editor of this issue:

William Self, The Medical Library Center of New York, 5 East 102nd St., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10029 S-1, Phone: 212-427-1630, Fax: 212-860-3496, E-mail: wself@mlcny.org.

Electronic Funds Transfer System (EFTS)
Perhaps the most exciting announcement to come out of that session was the news that EFTS is "going national" and that NLM will be a participant.

For those of you who do not know, the Electronic Fund Transfer System (EFTS), is a transaction-based electronic billing system for ILL and document delivery charges. It has been operational since 1996 in New England, since 1998 in the Middle Atlantic Region, and is currently used in a total of four NN/LM regions.

EFTS provides monthly detailed transaction reports, the ability to handle differential charges such as additional rush or fax charges, the ability to vary charges to members of special groups, and the ability to handle non-DOCLINE transactions. NN/LM members of all types and sizes have found that it reduces the administrative costs associated with billing and paying for ILLs.

NLM is committed to working with the University of Connecticut Health Center EFTS staff to expand the system on a national basis to NN/LM member libraries. Additionally, the plan includes sending NLM billing data for DOCLINE libraries to the EFTS system.

More information about EFTS can be found at http:/efts.uchc.edu/

SERHOLD to OCLC
Eight libraries participated in NLM's SERHOLD-to-OCLC pilot project to add, modify or delete holdings automatically in OCLC based on changes in SERHOLD. By July of this year, NLM expects to offer all DOCLINE participants who also have holdings in OCLC the ability to load their holdings from SERHOLD to OCLC. Holdings modified in SERHOLD will be automatically updated in OCLC every three months, eliminating redundant keying of data.

ISO/ILL Protocol
During this past year, NLM has been testing the ISO/ILL Protocol with three vendors: RLG's ILL Manager, Fretwell-Downing's VDX system, and CISTI. The purpose of this protocol is to enable ILL systems to share data so that users of a commercial ILL system can send and receive requests to and from DOCLINE without logging in separately. In April 2002, NLM began testing the protocol with OCLC. NLM's implementation of the ILL protocol with OCLC will allow DOCLINE users who do not have an ISO/ILL compliant system to send unfilled requests to OCLC from DOCLINE. At that point the user will manage the request from OCLC.

SERHOLD and LinkOut
NLM has developed a new programming interface between LinkOut and SERHOLD, currently in beta testing with 77 libraries. The program loads SERHOLD data into LinkOut, enabling users to verify whether their library owns the volume cited in a PubMed record.

Upcoming DOCLINE Release 1.4
In response to customer feedback, NLM will add three new Loansome Doc features that will be implemented in DOCLINE Release 1.4 by the end of the year. Those enhancements include:

1. A message on its DOCLINE Home page notifying a library when a new LD account has been added.
2. Adding the "reason" a request was not filled by the ordering library to the "Loansome Doc Patron Status of Orders"; and,
3. Modifying the message to a patron who is no longer authorized to order documents from his ordering library to be more specific about what his next steps should be to get an authorized account.

DOCLINE Interface Review
For the past six months I have been part of a small team of RML and NLM staff working together on a project to conduct a systematic review of the DOCLINE interface. The initial focus is on changing DOCUSER, but during the course of the next year all modules will be reviewed.

The specific goals of the review include:

• improved usability overall,
• adding requested enhancements received from users, and
• an improved HELP system.

The entire RML staff joins me in wishing one and all a healthy and refreshing summer and I look forward to sharing updated information with you in the fall.