Standards in Electronic Resource Management
Panel Session Sponsored by the SIG on Library Technologies

Rafal Kasprowski [Moderator], Electronic Resources Coordinator, University of Houston, 114 University Libraries, Houston, TX 77204-2000, rkasprowski@uh.edu

Adam Chandler, Information Technology Librarian, Cornell University, Central Technical Services, Olin Library, Ithaca, NY 14853-5301, alc28@cornell.edu

Ted Koppel, Verde Product Manager, Ex Libris, Inc., 313 Washington Street, Suite 308, Newton, MA 02458, ted.koppel@exlibris-usa.com

Nathan D.M. Robertson, Electronic Resources Librarian, University of Maryland, Thurgood Marshall Law Library, 501 West Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21201-1768, nrobertson@law.umaryland.edu

ASIS&T Annual Meeting - 2006 (ASIS&T 2006)
Austin, Texas, November 3-9, 2006

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Abstract

Following last year’s panel on developments in electronic resource management (ERM), the 2006 panel will discuss ERM standards. The deliverables published by the Digital Library Federation’s Electronic Resource Management Initiative (DLF ERMI) had a decisive impact on the development of ERM systems and created a demand by the library, vendor, and publisher communities for further standardization in the area. In the second phase of the group’s work (ERMI 2), a major objective is to develop standards for the collection of license information and usage statistics, which would reduce the administrative costs of both data sets. The need for ERM standardization has led the stakeholders to collaborate. ERMI 2 and EDItEUR are attempting to incorporate the data elements proposed by ERMI into the ONIX family of publisher data standards. The DLF/NISO/EDItEUR/PLS License Expression Working Group (LEWG) is participating in the development of license standards in part based on the work of ERMI and EDItEUR. The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) is developing a standard model for retrieving usage data. As a result, license data available in a single data container could be downloaded directly into ERM systems, as would usage statistics thanks to a platform-independent protocol for retrieving COUNTER-compliant data.


History and Perspectives on Electronic Resource Management Standards
Ted Koppel, Verde Product Manager at Ex Libris, Inc., since 2005, oversees the implementation of the company’s ERM system. Before joining Ex Libris, Mr. Koppel worked at the University of Denver (Assistant Director for Technical Services), the CARL Corporation, OCLC, and TLC (Senior Product Manager for Standards Implementation). He has extensive experience in standard development as member of several key committees: SICI Z39.56, BICI, NCIP Implementers Group, IPIG ILL Implementers Group, Metasearch Initiative, SRN (ONIX for Serials), VIEWS, Book Industry Study Group BISG X.12 Update Committee, and lately the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI), as well as the License Exchange Working Group (LEWG). Mr. Koppel will (a) discuss the history of publishing and library technology standards, (b) show how previous standardization efforts lead to the current ERMI, EDItEUR, SUSHI and LEWG projects, (c) explain the driving forces behind the increasing trend for ERM standards and their importance to ERM systems, and (d) provide insight into relevant standards on the horizon and their potential usefulness to information science.

Standard Development by the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative
Adam Chandler is Information Technology Librarian at the Central Technical Services of the Cornell University Library. Ongoing steering committee member of the DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI), now in its second phase, and co-chair of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI), he has acted as speaker and facilitator at several workshops on ERMI and SUSHI standards. Mr. Chandler will explain how usage data standards, driven by the increasing importance of ERM systems and web services, are evolving from COUNTER specifications to the SUSHI protocol. The currently developed SUSHI protocol will be presented in depth and implementation examples will be provided.


Standard Development by the DLF/NISO/EDItEUR/PLS License Expression Working Group
Nathan Robertson joined the University of Maryland Thurgood Marshall Law Library as Electronic Resources Librarian in 2005 and is responsible for the management of the database and electronic journal subscriptions. He is a member of the Digital Library Federation's ERM Steering Group, and co-author of the 2004 DLF ERMI report. He chairs the Coverage subgroup of the NISO/EDItEUR Joint Working Party for the Exchange of Serials Subscription Information, and co-chairs the License Exchange Working Group (LEWG). Mr. Robertson is also a member of the Library & Information Technology Association’s (LITA) Top Technology Trends committee and a former chair of its Standards Interest Group. In his prior engagement as Database Analyst/Programmer for the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University, Mr. Robertson was a co-developer and administrator of the open-source Hopkins Electronic Resource Management System (HERMES). Mr. Robertson will talk about the legal and technical conflict between licenses, copyright, digital rights management (DRM) technology and Rights Expression Languages, and discuss the alternative approach LEWG’s License Expression message will provide. He will also present information on the content of the License Expression message, the uses to which the standardized message can (and cannot) be put, and demonstrate how uses of the license expression format may appear to librarians and end-users.

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