NVTGC: Site/Affiliation vs. Delivery Location
The NVTGC field is unusual in that a single field designates two different things: a Site/Affiliation and a Delivery Location. Both are stored as NVTGC codes, which makes it easy to assume they behave the same way. They do not.
Two Kinds of NVTGC Code​
A Site/Affiliation is a fully operational ILL unit. It processes borrowing and document delivery for its own users and lends from its own collection. One ILLiad instance can have several, each with full ILLiad functionality, and each appears in the list of processing centers when staff log into the client. A site can have multiple delivery locations beneath it.
A Delivery Location is a place where patrons pick up and return print materials, and nothing more. Email notifications can be customized per delivery location, so each one can carry its own hours and phone number.
For the fuller definitions and help deciding which setup your institution needs, see ILLiad Single or Shared Server.
When Delivery Locations Are Shared Across Sites​
ILLiad's design assumes each site has its own delivery locations, because sites are usually serving different patron groups. Adding Delivery Locations describes that arrangement: a processing site, APPLE, with three delivery locations of its own — FUJI, GALA, and GRANNY — alongside two other processing sites, CHERRY and PEAR. Each site's delivery locations belong to it alone, and the configuration is straightforward.
It stops being straightforward when a delivery location is shared — when a patron affiliated with one site can collect materials at a location belonging to another. In that case a separate delivery location must be created for each site, within each site. Delivery locations are not shared between sites; they are duplicated into each one.
Suppose all three processing sites are also pickup points, and GRANNY remains open only to APPLE patrons. That takes ten delivery locations, not four:
| Site | Delivery locations to create |
|---|---|
| APPLE | APPLE-APPLE, APPLE-CHERRY, APPLE-PEAR, APPLE-GRANNY |
| CHERRY | CHERRY-APPLE, CHERRY-CHERRY, CHERRY-PEAR |
| PEAR | PEAR-APPLE, PEAR-CHERRY, PEAR-PEAR |
Each site gets an entry for every pickup point its patrons are allowed to use, including the site itself. GRANNY appears only under APPLE, because only APPLE patrons can collect there.
Adding delivery locations requires running a script against your ILLiad database. See Adding Delivery Locations for the script and for the web page, user, and UserValidation changes that go with it.
What This Means for User Records​
Every user record carries an NVTGC value that assigns the patron to a site. Their requests are visible only when staff are logged into the client under that symbol.
If the site has a single delivery location, one NVTGC value serves both purposes at once — site and delivery location. If the site has several, the patron is limited to the delivery locations configured for their NVTGC.
In the client's User Record, the Location field displays every delivery location on the system, regardless of which site the client is currently logged into. The list is not filtered to the patron's site, so it is possible to select a location the patron's site is not configured for.
How the NVTGC value reaches a user record in the first place depends on how your web pages are configured — specifically whether the registration forms present NVTGC as a hidden field or as a dropdown.
Seeing Which Codes Are Delivery Locations​
There is no way to tell from the client or the Customization Manager which NVTGC codes are configured only as delivery locations rather than as sites. If you need that list, contact Atlas Support and we can provide it.