diff --git a/include/lib/vtoc.h b/include/lib/vtoc.h
index fdc3bf78..6c1b24ac 100644
--- a/include/lib/vtoc.h
+++ b/include/lib/vtoc.h
@@ -97,6 +97,13 @@ typedef struct volume_label
  	unsigned long long formatted_blocks; /* valid when ldl_version >= f2 */
 } __attribute__ ((packed)) volume_label_t;
 
+static inline int is_vol1(char *this)
+{
+	char vol1[] = {0xe5, 0xd6, 0xd3, 0xf1, 0x00} /* "VOL1" in EBCDIC */;
+
+	return !strncmp(this, vol1, 4);
+}
+
 typedef struct extent 
 {
         u_int8_t  typeind;          /* extent type indicator                     */
diff --git a/libzds/libzds.c b/libzds/libzds.c
index dbf810d1..a0399b12 100644
--- a/libzds/libzds.c
+++ b/libzds/libzds.c
@@ -1419,7 +1419,6 @@ int lzds_dasd_read_rawvtoc(struct dasd *dasd, struct raw_vtoc *rawvtoc)
 
 	volume_label_t *vlabel = NULL;
 	char *trackdata = NULL;
-	char vol1[] = {0xe5, 0xd6, 0xd3, 0xf1, 0x00}; /* "VOL1" in EBCDIC */
 
 	errorlog_clear(dasd->log);
 
@@ -1431,8 +1430,7 @@ int lzds_dasd_read_rawvtoc(struct dasd *dasd, struct raw_vtoc *rawvtoc)
 		goto cleanup;
 	}
 	/* verify that we have a proper VOL1 label */
-	if (strncmp(vlabel->volkey, vol1, 4) ||
-	    strncmp(vlabel->vollbl, vol1, 4)) {
+	if (!is_vol1(vlabel->volkey) || !is_vol1(vlabel->vollbl)) {
 		rc = EINVAL;
 		errorlog_add_message(
 			&dasd->log, NULL, rc,