Working Group Connection, September 2024: Projects via Information Discovery & Interchange Topic Committee
Co-chairs of the IDI topic committee are: Robert Boissy (Springer Nature) and Jan Waterhouse (Kansas State University).
Access & License Indicators Revision
Working Group Web Page
Publication: NISO RP-22-2021, Access & License Indicators (2021 Revision)
The Access License and Indicators (ALI) Recommended Practice was first published by NISO in 2015 with the goal to standardize and communicate bibliographic metadata that describe the access rights status of journal articles and their license details. The specification gained adoption and use via the ANSI/NISO JATS vocabulary and the Crossref metadata schema.
This 2021 revision extended the RP to add metadata and indicators that would allow metadata users, such as content platforms, to filter or target subsets of license information. This filtering or sub-setting would enable applications to determine whether their users can share a specific journal article version – or elements thereof – under specific contexts (e.g., sharing in researcher collaboration groups or on public profiles).
Communication of Retractions, Removals, and Expressions of Concern (CREC)
Chair: Caitlin Bakker (University of Regina)
Working Group web page
Work Item Approved by NISO Voting Members
Retracted research is published work that is withdrawn, removed, or otherwise invalidated from the scientific and scholarly record. Although relatively rare, retracted research—including unsupported or fabricated data, fundamental errors, and unreproducible results—can be inadvertently propagated within the digital scholarly record through citations. The CREC Recommended Practice is intended to help address this problem, by clearly identifying parties involved in the retraction process, along with their responsibilities, actions, notifications, and the metadata necessary to communicate retracted research. CREC is an output of both the recent Sloan Foundation-funded project, Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science (RISRS) and the 2021 NISO Plus conference, where this topic was one of three highlighted by attendees as of highest importance. CREC will be consistent with existing guidelines, such as those published by the Council on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Council of Science Editors (CSE).
The NISO CREC Recommended Practice was published in June. The primary aim of the Recommended Practice is to establish best practices for metadata creation, transfer, and display for both the original publication and the statement of retraction, removal, or EoC, with the goal of facilitating the timely and efficient communication of information to all relevant stakeholders. With the publication of the Recommended Practice, the work of the NISO CREC Working Group is now complete. NISO is now forming a Standing Committee to take over the work of promotion and support of the Recommended Practice. If you are interested in participating, please contact Keondra Bailey, Assistant Standards Program Manager.
On July 10, NISO held a public webinar featuring co-chair Caitlin Bakker, CREC Working Group Member and Sloan Foundation grant recipient Dr. Jodi Schneider, and CREC Working Group Member Maria Zalm, to discuss the Recommended Practice. Caitlin Bakker and Maria Zalm were featured in a post on the Retraction Watch blog discussing the Recommended Practice and encouraging its adoption by the wider information community. Joyce Griffin, Patrick Hargitt, and Emily Hazzard participated in the Stakeholder Views on CREC interview series to discuss how the Recommended Practice can benefit the community by industry. Caitlin Bakker wrote a piece summarizing the Recommended Practice for Science Editor. NISO Executive Director, Todd Carpenter, wrote about the working group and the Recommended Practice for the Scholarly Kitchen. Tilla Edmunds, Annette Flanagin, and Jodi Schneider discussed the Recommended Practice at the Council of Science Editors Annual Meeting in May.
Interoperable System of Controlled Digital Lending (IS-CDL)
Chair: Allen Jones (The New School)
Working Group Web Page
Work Item Approved by NISO Voting Members
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded NISO a grant of $125,000 in 2021 to support the development of a consensus framework for implementing controlled digital lending (CDL) of book content by libraries. Libraries exist to serve their communities and to distribute information and knowledge of all kinds to users of many types, abilities, and resources; circulation of content in all formats is a core feature of what libraries exist to do, and they have been doing so legally for centuries. CDL is an emerging “lend like print” approach, which enables libraries to loan digital versions of their print books while using technical controls to ensure a consistent “owned-to-loaned” ratio. This allows a library to lend the exact number of copies of a specific title it owns—-regardless of format—-with controls to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version.
The Working Group began its work in January 2022. It included subgroups discussing circulation, interlibrary loan, digital objects, and sharing digital assets. These examined and analyzed existing models that describe the similarities and differences between CDL and traditional circulation and ILL and identified gaps in the understanding of CDL applications. The Recommended Practice draft describes systems interoperability requirements, identifies changes needed to existing library protocols and standards, and recommends model processes for library staff.
The public comment period for the draft Recommended Practice ended in April. The working group is reviewing the comments received from the public comment period. The NISO Information Discovery & Interchange Topic Committee is reviewing the project's scope in light of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.
Knowledge Bases And Related Tools (KBART) Standing Committee
Co-chairs: Robert Heaton (EBSCO), Noah Levin (Springer Publishing)
Contact KBART Chairs for endorsement approval
KBART Web Pages
Publication: Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2014)
KBART is a NISO Recommended Practice that facilitates the transfer of holdings metadata from content providers to knowledge base suppliers and libraries. Knowledge bases are widely used to support library link resolvers and electronic resource management systems. The first iteration of the KBART Recommended Practice, which focused on journal holdings, was published in 2010; a 2014 "Phase II" revision extended support to metadata for e-books, conference proceedings, consortial subscriptions and some open access publications. Starting in early 2020 the KBART Standing Committee has been hard at work on research and actions around elements of its Phase III work with subgroups addressing areas of work such as clarifying the recommendations, revamping the mission statement, determining new types of material to support (such as video) and thus any required new fields, and creating a new file guide. The endorsement process continues as approved providers are added to the KBART Registry, although a new validator application under development may help speed this process further.
From the Working Group: "One thing we keep in mind as we revise KBART, and which we like to remind others, is that KBART is not intended to provide comprehensive descriptive metadata for content, a task more suited to MARC, for example. KBART aims to provide the metadata needed to identify the correct copy of an e-resource for linking purposes. At its core, KBART communicates holdings metadata."
The KBART Standing Committee is continuing its efforts to refine the draft for Phase III. In August, the New Fields and File Manifest subgroups held a joint meeting to discuss additions to these sections of the draft. The group is hoping to have a draft ready for public comment and review by early 2025.
Bobbi Patham gave an update on the group’s progress at NISO Plus Global/Online.
Enhancing KBART for Automated Exchange of Title Lists and Library Holdings
Publication: KBART Automation Recommended Practice (NISO RP-26-2019)
KBART Automation Working Group Web Page
The KBART Automation Working Group’s output, the KBART Automation Recommended Practice (NISO RP-26-2019) was published in June 2019. This work extends the KBART Phase 2 Recommended Practice to provide technical instructions to facilitate the automatic transfer and retrieval of holdings data between content providers and institutional knowledge bases with the goal of automatically and regularly updating institutional activations and settings via an API. Included in the Recommended Practice are descriptions of data elements and file formats; options a content provider must provide to enable customers to access its holdings reports; expected API support that enables automated retrieval of reports; suggested license language and a discussion of data confidentiality; and description of additional elements and attribute values that can be included in the reports.
It is likely that there will be more resources to address further KBART Automation work once the KBART Standing Committee's efforts on KBART Phase III wrap up.
NCIP (NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol) Standing Committee
NCIP Web Pages
NCIP Standing Committee
Publication: ANSI/NISO Z39.83-1-2012 (version 2.02), NISO Circulation Interchange - Part 1: Protocol (NCIP)
Publication: ANSI/NISO Z39.83-2-2012 (version 2.02), NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) Part 2: Implementation Profile 1
The latest version of NCIP, 2.02, was published in 2012. The Standing Committee is responsible for reviewing status of implementations and discussing other general business, such as additions to the NCIP website, implementor questions, and potential updates to the protocol. Input from the public is welcome. NISO expects to begin a standards review and potential reaffirmation process for NCIP in 2025.
Open Discovery Initiative Standing Committee
Co-chairs: Rachel Kessler (ProQuest), Ken Varnum (University of Michigan)
ODI Web Pages
Publication: ODI Recommended Practice (NISO RP-19-2020)
The newest version of the Open Discovery Initiative Recommended Practice was approved by NISO and published in June 2020. The updated ODI Recommended Practice provides a more detailed treatment of Abstracting and Indexing (A&I) content products, and supports better metadata sharing (including information about open access material) and record display, as well as improved tracking of usage statistics and authentication mechanisms. It also includes advice on systems, training, and communication for libraries that configure and upgrade their discovery systems. ODI's intent is to unify the community by encouraging dialogue among stakeholders and by increasing order within the industry by standardizing practices.
As generative AI continues to change the way we interact with technology, the ODI Standing Committee has developed a survey to gather information from constituents on their experiences, expectations, and concerns with the integration of AI into web-scale discovery services. The survey will be open until October 31, 2024. The group will subsequently post the results of the survey via their website. The Standing Committee has also released the first three videos in the Demystifying Discovery series. The series aims to introduce professionals to a more cohesive perspective on the various parts of the discovery ecosystem. The first three videos, Discovery System Ecosystem, Introduction to Link Resolvers, and Introduction to Metadata and Its Role in Information Resource Discovery, can be viewed on NISO’s channel on the Cadmore Media platform.
Co-chairs Rachel Kessler and Ken Varnum will discuss the group’s current outputs and activities at October’s NISO Open Teleconference. Standing Committee member Teresa Hazen and Information Discovery & Interchange Topic Committee member Matthew Raggucci presented a session entitled “Navigating NISO's Open Discovery Initiative: A Deep Dive into Libraries and Publishers Collaboration” at the NASIG 39th Annual Conference in June. Ken Varnum delivered an update on the group’s activities at NISO Plus Global/Online in September.
ResourceSync Working Group
ResourceSync Web Page
Publication: ANSI/NISO Z39.99-2017, ResourceSync Framework Specification
ResourceSync, a specification which describes a synchronization framework for the web consisting of various capabilities that allow third party systems to remain synchronized with a server's evolving resources, was first published in 2014 and updated more recently in 2017 as ANSI/NISO Z39.99-2017. The problem that ResourceSync was designed to solve spans the areas of search, discovery, deposit, metadata harvesting, and transfer; there is a need to keep collections of resources in sync so that additions, updates, and deletions of one are reflected in the other. The ResourceSync standard was written in such a way that individual capabilities could be combined to meet local requirements. A server may also describe synchronization capabilities that it supports and means through which third party systems may discover this support. The core functionality of the specification is intended to represent a functional replacement of OAI-PMH. (Other features, such as change notification, framework notification, and archive capabilities are published through separate documents, not currently part of the material part of NISO/ANSI standardization.)
ResourceSync is due for its periodic review; NISO will pull together this formal activity later this year.
A quick overview of ResourceSync is available at http://youtu.be/ASQ4jMYytsA.
New Project: Open ILS/LSP Ecosystem Interconnectivity Encompassing Technical Needs, Definitions of Terms and Community Transparency; Open ILS Initiative (OII)
Work Item Approved by NISO Voting Members
Libraries each have unique needs to uphold and sustain their mission. As a result, the potential combinations of software/systems evident across the library community are virtually unlimited. However, the ability to implement preferred approaches for each library, involving integrating disparate systems and tools, can be challenging when dealing with closed infrastructures, technical limitations, lack of standardization, system restrictions, unclarity about the scope of interoperability, and the potential confusion caused by lack of clarity/definition of related terms. The ILS (Integrated Library System) or LSP (Library Services Platform) tends to be the center of these environments where interoperability and bi-directional integrations are paramount, hence the focus of this endeavor.
This proposal is to support a working group that will develop a Recommended Practice to create visibility, clarity, and conformance of the areas that will optimize open interoperability around the ILS/LSP and support the various parties involved. The initial working group for the Open ILS Initiative Recommended Practice would analyze the existing landscape, including conducting community surveys, among other types of information gathering.
NISO expects to convene the working group later this year. For more information contact nisohq@niso.org.