UKSG/NISO release KBART Recommended Practice for exchanging data with knowledge bases

[Charlie Rapple <charlie.rapple@tbicommunications.com>]

Dear all,

I am delighted to be announcing the release of the KBART Phase I 
Recommended Practice, which consists of best practice guidelines 
and supporting information to help publishers, libraries and 
knowledge base developers exchange e-content holdings information 
more effectively - this should lead to reduced user frustration, 
reduced administrative burden for libraries, and more traffic to 
publisher websites.

There is more information and an HTML version of the recommended 
practice at http://www.uksg.org/kbart/s1/summary. You can also 
download the PDF version of the report here. The press release 
announcing the launch of the Recommended Practice is copied 
below.

We hope that the guidelines we have developed are useful and 
represent a strong foundation for the group's future work; 
certainly our testing process underlined the value of guidance in 
this area. If you'd like any more information about the project, 
the Recommended Practice, or the activities of UKSG and NISO, 
please do not hesitate to contact us.

Many thanks, all the best,

Charlie Rapple (KBART Phase I UKSG co-chair - 
charlie.rapple@tbicommunications.com)

Peter McCracken (KBART Phase I NISO co-chair - 
petersersol@yahoo.com)

Sarah Pearson (KBART Phase II UKSG co-chair - 
S.Pearson.1@bham.ac.uk)

  ___________________

*UKSG and NISO Release First KBART Recommendations for Improved 
OpenURL Data Supply*

January 18, 2010 - Baltimore, MD and Newbury, UK - UKSG and NISO 
are pleased to announce the first report by the KBART (Knowledge 
Bases And Related Tools) Working Group, a joint initiative that 
is exploring data problems within the OpenURL supply chain. The 
KBART Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2010) contains practical 
recommendations for the timely exchange of accurate metadata 
between content providers and knowledge base developers.

The KBART Recommended Practice, a report from Phase I of the 
KBART project, provides all parties in the information supply 
chain with straightforward guidance about the role of metadata 
within the OpenURL linking standard, and recommends data 
formatting and exchange guidelines for publishers, aggregators, 
agents, technology vendors, and librarians to adhere to when 
exchanging information about their respective content holdings.

"Six years after NISO's ratification of the OpenURL standard 
(ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004), many stakeholders in the information 
supply chain still have a limited understanding of how best to 
share data to maximize the value of OpenURL linking," says Peter 
McCracken, NISO co-chair of the KBART Working Group (Phase I). 
UKSG's co-chair (Phase I), Charlie Rapple of TBI Communications, 
adds, "It was important for us to get back to basics and provide 
step-by-step guidance to address some of the fundamental problems 
that were occurring. With their track records for practical 
leadership and their reach across the extended information 
community, UKSG and NISO have been ideal project sponsors."

Sarah Pearson, E-Resources & Serials Coordinator at the 
University of Birmingham, is taking on the role of UKSG co-chair 
for KBART's Phase II. "As a librarian who has struggled with poor 
quality, outdated holdings data and the frustration this causes 
our users, I'm pleased to see some really practical guidance 
being made available. I hope to see widespread adoption of 
KBART's recommendations as they will lead to more reliable access 
for users, increased traffic for publishers, easier data 
management for vendors and reduced administration for 
librarians."

The KBART Working Group will shortly embark on the project's 
Phase II, which will build on the foundation phase to address 
more complex data issues, including different types of content, 
emerging business models, and customized licensing. The UKSG 
Committee and the NISO Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee are 
in the final stages of approval.

For more information, to review the KBART Recommended Practice, 
or to find out how to get involved in future phases of KBART's 
work, please visit www.uksg.org/kbart or 
www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart.

*About KBART*

KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related Tools) was set up following 
the 2007 publication of the UKSG research report "Link Resolvers 
and the Serials Supply Chain". Central to the efficient operation 
of the OpenURL is the knowledge base, which consists of data 
supplied by content providers including publishers. The report 
found that a lack of awareness of the OpenURLs capabilities and 
requirements is impacting the quality and timeliness of data 
provided to populate knowledge bases, and thus undermining the 
potential of the sophisticated OpenURL technology. UKSG partnered 
with NISO to commission the KBART Working Group to develop 
guidelines for best practice and provide educational materials. 
The core NISO/UKSG Working Group consists of representatives from 
libraries, knowledge base developers, publishers, intermediaries 
and other content providers, and is supported by a monitoring 
group of interested parties. Its Phase I report (KBART 
Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2010) and guide lines have been 
widely reviewed and tested by a wider group of information supply 
chain stakeholders. For more information, visitwww.uksg.org/kbart 
or www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart.

*About NISO*

NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that 
facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective 
interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in 
research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages 
libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other 
organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship 
through the creation, organization, management, and curation of 
knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest 
and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO 
is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American 
National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO 
is available on its website: www.niso.org. For more information 
please contact NISO on (301) 654-2512 or via email on 
nisohq@niso.org.

*About UKSG*

UKSG exists to connect the information community and encourage 
the exchange of ideas on scholarly communication. It spans the 
wide range of interests and activities of the extended scholarly 
information community of librarians, publishers, intermediaries 
and technology vendors. In a dynamic environment, UKSG works to:

*facilitate community integration, networking, discussion and 
exchange of ideas

*improve members' knowledge of the scholarly information sector 
and support skills development

*stimulate research and collaborative initiatives, encourage 
innovation and promote standards for good practice

*disseminate news, information and publications, and raise 
awareness of services that support the scholarly information 
sector. For more information, please visit the UKSG website, 
www.uksg.org.

*For more information, please contact:*

Karen Wetzel, NISO Standards Program Manager, kwetzel@niso.org

Tracy Garden, UKSG Marketing Associate, tracy@tgm.ox14.com

***