Quick Summary
The MNLINK Transition Task Force has published a Request for Procurement (RFP) for new software to run MNLINK. VDX, the software that has made MNLINK possible since 2004, will be retired by OCLC in June 2024.
The MNLINK RFP has been published! Many thanks to all of the members of the MNLINK Transition team for all of their hard work putting this together. And extra thanks to the folks who shared their thoughts, dreams and hopes for the new MNLINK. All of the vendor responses are due by the end of January. After the responses are scored, finalists will be invited to demonstrate their solutions. While we don't have any dates yet, we will share them as soon as possible.
Background
MNLINK is a statewide system that serves as a discovery and interlibrary loan interface for library patrons and staff. Through our participating libraries, patrons have easy access to the catalogs of most libraries in Minnesota. Patrons can request interlibrary loan items directly through MNLINK, and materials are delivered to their home library with Minitex delivery.
This access is currently provided through the WorldCat Discovery service, which has a subset of records uploaded to OCLC from Minnesota libraries of all types. OCLC’s WorldCat Discovery also acts as the central index for the service. The Interlibrary Loan portion of the service is provided by OCLC’s VDX Software. MNLINK has been running on VDX since 2004, although the last time that Minitex released an RFP for MNLINK, OCLC was awarded the contract for a scoped version of WorldShare ILL, which changed to Relais D2D when OCLC purchased Relais. Unfortunately, Relais has never developed enough to be a viable option for MNLINK.
As a result, a MNLINK Transition Task Force has been charged with recommending a new solution for MNLINK.
