Manual Local Document Processing via Odyssey

ILLiad can run OCR on an inbound Odyssey document automatically, but some libraries want to run their own desktop tool — most often a local OCR product such as Adobe Acrobat — against a document before it reaches the patron. That is a fully supported, staff-driven workflow today: it uses the ILLiad Client's Electronic Delivery form and the existing Trusted Sender routing, with no special configuration beyond deciding which lenders should be handled this way.

The three OCR paths

ILLiad has three ways to get an inbound Odyssey document OCR'd before it reaches the patron. Two are automatic and run on the server; the third is manual and runs on a staff workstation.

• Article Exchange OCR — ILLiad's built-in, server-side path. It runs automatically at receipt when enabled, with no staff involvement. See OCR Functionality in ILLiad.
• Addon OCR provider — a server-side alternative in which a registered addon performs OCR instead of Article Exchange. Like Article Exchange OCR, it is automatic and requires no staff handling.
• Manual local processing — the subject of this page. Instead of an automatic server-side step, the document is parked for a staff member, who runs any local tool they choose before delivering the finished file. It is governed by Trusted Sender, not by an OCR-provider setting.

Automatic OCR selects one engine; manual local processing is a routing outcome

The automatic OCR engine (Article Exchange or a registered addon) is chosen per system. Manual local processing isn't one of those options — it happens whenever a document is parked for staff handling instead of auto-delivered. A library can run Article Exchange OCR as its default and still route specific lenders to manual local processing via Trusted Sender.

When to use this path

Use manual local processing when a library wants to run its own tool against an inbound document rather than rely on Article Exchange OCR — for example:

• The library already owns a desktop OCR license (such as Adobe) and prefers its quality or coverage.
• The library wants a process that needs no server-side OCR infrastructure at all.
• The document needs image cleanup — crop, deskew, rotate — in addition to OCR, which is a staff judgment call.

This path is inherently manual: a staff member pulls the file down, runs the outside tool, and delivers the result. It is a per-lender or per-library staffing decision, not something ILLiad automates end to end.

Prerequisite: Trusted Sender

ILLiad's inbound Odyssey pipeline decides whether a received document is delivered straight to the patron or parked for staff handling. That decision is governed by the OdysseyAutoElecDel customization key together with the per-lender Trusted Sender flag on the lender's address record:

OdysseyAutoElecDel	Behavior
Always	Every lender is auto-delivered unless that lender has Trusted Sender Override set, which forces it back to manual.
Trusted (default)	Only lenders flagged Trusted Sender are auto-delivered; everyone else is parked for manual review.
Never	Nothing auto-delivers; everything is parked for manual review, regardless of the Trusted Sender flag.

To route a lender's incoming documents into the manual queue for local processing, either:

• Site-wide: set OdysseyAutoElecDel to Never — every inbound document is parked for manual handling.
• Per-lender: leave OdysseyAutoElecDel at its default of Trusted and simply don't mark that lender's address record as Trusted Sender. Only that lender is affected; everyone else continues to auto-deliver.

See Odyssey Trusted Sender for how the Trusted Sender flag is set.

The workflow

Staff process manual documents entirely through the ILLiad Client's Electronic Delivery form. The outside OCR tool runs on the staff workstation, outside of ILLiad.

1. Configure Trusted Sender. For any lender whose documents should be processed locally, turn Trusted Sender off for that lender's address (or set OdysseyAutoElecDel to Never site-wide). Documents from that lender now land at the status Awaiting Odyssey Processing instead of delivering automatically.
2. Pull the file down. In the Electronic Delivery form, open the transaction. The form downloads the file from the Odyssey server and moves the transaction to In Electronic Delivery Processing. The file now exists as a local file on the staff workstation.
3. Run the outside tool. Run whatever local tool the library has standardized on — Adobe or another OCR product — against the downloaded file, outside of ILLiad. ILLiad imposes no requirement on the tool beyond producing a file it can deliver (TIFF or PDF — see the callout below).
4. Make any needed image adjustments. The Electronic Delivery form's built-in scanning controls can crop, deskew, or rotate the image — the same tooling used for locally scanned documents.
5. Deliver the file. Use the form's Deliver File action. This re-uploads the processed file to the same Odyssey server the document came from and hands the transaction off for patron delivery. No separate "resubmit to Odyssey" step is needed.

Replace the original TIFF — don't just save the PDF next to it

A document can arrive as a TIFF and deliver correctly if your tool's output is a PDF — that's a supported case. Delivery accepts only TIFF or PDF; any other format is rejected and flagged for staff.

The catch is on the way back out: the form delivers the file recorded on the transaction, which right after download is the original .tif. It only falls back to a same-named .tif, then a same-named .pdf, if that exact file is gone. So if you save a new PDF but leave the original TIFF in the folder, the TIFF is delivered unchanged and the OCR'd PDF is never used. Whatever converts the file must delete or rename the original .tif once the .pdf exists — not just drop the PDF beside it.

Why the re-upload delivers automatically

The final step doesn't need any special routing logic because the re-upload is a self-addressed Odyssey transfer. When Deliver File re-sends the file, it sets both the sender ID and the receiver ID to the library's own Odyssey system ID — the same server delivering the file back to itself for the last step.

Odyssey Manager treats a document whose sender and receiver IDs match as one that originated locally and has come back from local processing, and delivers it to the patron automatically — regardless of the lender's Trusted Sender setting. The same setting that parked the original document has no bearing on the re-uploaded copy, because by then it's evaluated as "a document ILLiad already processed locally," not "a document from that lender." That's what lets the workflow finish without a second manual approval.

Comparison of the three paths

All three run through the same inbound Odyssey Manager pipeline. What differs is who performs OCR and whether staff are involved.

Path	Who runs OCR	Staff involvement	Fully automated?
Article Exchange OCR	Article Exchange, server-side, on receipt	None (unless the lender isn't trusted for other reasons)	Yes
Addon OCR provider	A registered addon, server-side	None — the automated alternative to Article Exchange OCR	Yes
Manual local processing	Whatever tool the library runs on a staff workstation (e.g. Adobe)	Required — staff pull the file down, run the tool, adjust, and deliver	No — staff-mediated

The only automatic step in manual local processing is the final hop: once staff re-upload the processed file, it delivers without a second approval. Everything before that — noticing the parked transaction, pulling it down, running the outside tool — is manual.