1. California Digital Library
Whither ERMI? the Once and Future DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative becomes NISO ERM Data Standards Review
Ivy Anderson
California Digital Library
NISO Forum Library Resource Management Systems: New Challenges, New Opportunities
October 8-9, 2009
Metro Meeting Center
Boston, MA

2. Oren’s opening remarks
Libraries want:
Single entry point for discovery and delivery
Consolidating workflows – uniting traditional functions with digital library functions
Re-use of bibliographic metadata for leveraging of effort

3. A Working Definition for ERMs
“Tools for managing the license agreements, related administrative information, and internal processes associated with collections of licensed electronic resources.”
Ellen Duranceau, Against The Grain, June 2005

4. Background: Digital Library Federation E-Resource Management Initiative

5. Evolution of the DLF Initiative
Outgrowth of Tim Jewell’s DLF study, “Selection and Presentation of Commercially Available Electronic Resources”
Two-Year Project
Goals:
“Develop common specifications and tools for managing the license agreements, related administrative information, and internal processes associated with collections of licensed electronic resources”
Describe architectures needed for electronic resource management
Foster systems development
Promote best practices and standards

6. Drivers E-resources an increasing focus of library purchasing activity
“As libraries have worked to incorporate electronic resources into their collections, services and operations, most have found their existing Integrated Library Systems to lack important functionality to support these new resources”

7. ARL Libraries 2007 E-Resource Expenditures
2003: $230 million (25%)
2007: $536 million (47%)

8. Drivers E-resources are different from print Trends in local practice
Complex to describe
Complex to fund and acquire
Complex to support and manage
Rise of licensing as a new practice in libraries
Trends in local practice
Wide staff involvement in selection, implementation & ongoing support
Tracking and presenting license terms to staff and end users
Planned/cyclic product evaluations prior to renewal
Lack of tools to support new activities and workflows

9. Acquisitions Process Electronic Print
Iterative, multiple steps performed simultaneously
Team-based
Requires higher level of professional involvement
Time-intensive
Print
Linear
Performed by a single individual at each step
Many tasks can be done by clerical staff
Not time-intensive
- Duranceau, Ellen, "Beyond Print: Revisioning Serials Acquisitions for the Digital Age," Serials Librarian, v. 33, no. 1-2, 1998

10. Print Acquisitions Workflow
Order
Catalog
Bind / Book Prep
Select

11. E-Resource Acquisitions Workflow
Propose
Parallel processes
Evaluate
Content, Platform, Cost
License
Technical Feasibility OK OK OK
Many Players
Approve / Negotiate
Order / Register for Access
Send data to multiple systems
Implement
Proxy Server
Portal
Catalog
Link Resolver
Ongoing Management / Stewardship

12. Trial
Assess need/budget
License terms
Price
Evaluate
Order, Register
Catalog
Digital Registry
Proxy server
Gateway
WebBridge
Usage stats
Review alternatives
Review problems
User feedback
Investigate
Evaluate
Monitor
Provide Access
Contact info
Provide Support
Administer
Inform users
Track problems
Troubleshoot
Manage changes
Provide Training
Payment, manage financials
Setup contacts
Customize interface
Holdings management
Set up usage statistics

13. The DLF ERMI 2004 Report

14. The DLF ERMI 2004 Report Relationships (Data Model)
Packages and their constituent parts
Knowing which resources share the same interface, license terms, business terms…
Information (Data Dictionary)
License permissions and constraints
User IDs, passwords, administrative info
Contacts for support and troubleshooting
Cancellation restrictions, price caps, etc.
Workflows (Functional Requirements)
Mounting Trials
Routing Licenses
Placing Orders
Implementing access
Notifying relevant staff

15. Appendix C: Entity Relationship Diagram

16. Appendix D: Data Element Dictionary
Almost 350 data elements with definitions
Alphabetical order
excerpt:
Data Element Name
Identifier
Definition
Comments
Embargo Period
embargoperiod
The amount of time by which content is intentionally delayed
Refer to developing standards (e.g., ONIX for Serials) for values 
Fair Use Clause Indicator
fairuseclause
A clause that affirms statutory fair use rights under U.S. copyright law (17 USC Section 107), or that the agreement does not restrict or abrogate the rights of the licensee or its user community under copyright law
Fair use rights include, but are not limited to, printing, downloading, and copying
Most applicable for U.S. libraries but may be of interest for other countries when recording terms for products licensed by U.S. businesses
Format
format
The form of presentation of a resource
Examples of electronic formats include descriptions of text (e.g., ASCII); images (e.g., JPEG); audio (e.g., “basic”)

17. Appendix E: Data Structure
The data elements of Appendix D structured to show logical groupings and relationships
System functionality explanations
Data types, enumerated values, cardinality
excerpt:
Interface Entity
Definition
Interface entity is part of the master set Electronic Product. It is comprised of many elements identifying or associated with the interface of an electronic resource. An interface is the software platform or website through which a particular electronic resource is made available.
Elements
Interface ID, Interface Acquisition, Interface Prevailing Terms, Interface Access Information, Interface Administrative Information, Interface Name, Interface Digital Object Identifier, Interface Other Identifier Source, Interface Other Identifier Number, Interface Provider, Medium, Interface Status, Interface Public Note
Notes
Elements may be derived from other linked entities as appropriate. Interface is one of two subsets of the Electronic Product set; for some bridge entities an id from either its sibling Electronic Resource or from Interface must be present, but both are not always required. FR19
Element
Element Type
System Use / Functionality
Values
Option-ality
Repeat-ability
Notes / Examples
Interface ID
The identification number assigned to the interface by the electronic resource management system
unique ID
system generated identifier R N
This should be considered a unique local identifier. Links an Interface record to other data.
Interface Acquisition
The acquisition which has made the interface available to the collection
pointer
ID from Acquisition entity RA
Interface Prevailing Terms
The business and legal terms under which the interface is licensed and acquired
FR1, FR2
ID from the Prevailing Terms entity

18. Functional Requirements
Support the ‘Life Cycle’ of electronic resources
Selection and acquisition
Access provision
Resource administration
User support and troubleshooting (staff and end-users)
Renewal and retention decisions

19. Appendix A: Functional Requirements
Focus: Information and Workflows for e-resource management in a library setting
47 major requirements in 8 categories
Over 150 itemized requirements
excerpt:
27. Store license rights and terms for reference, reporting, and control of services
27.1 For services including but not limited to ILL, reserves, distance education, course web sites, and course packs:
Identify whether a given title may be used for the service and under what conditions
Generate reports of all materials that may or may not be used for the service with notes about conditions
Functional Requirements: Information
Store and display data not accommodated in current systems
For End Users
Auxiliary descriptive data
License permissions and restrictions
Availability (is this resource down?)
Technical and platform-specific issues
For Staff
License information (more detailed)
Administrative IDs and passwords
Business information: Pricing models, cost-sharing arrangements, cancellation restrictions, price caps
Usage statistics and training information
Functional Requirements: Workflow
Support new workflows for electronic resources
Selection and acquisition
Access provision
Resource administration
User support and troubleshooting
Renewal and retention decisions

20. ERMI Successes
Articulated the relationships among licenses, resources, packages, providers, and platforms
Fostered recognition that licenses and related metadata had to be properly managed
Spawned the development of systems to manage e-resource information
“If last year’s hot product was federated searching, then 2004 belongs to electronic resources management (ERM)” and of the impact of the DLF ERMI documents: “in a nearly unprecedented move, nearly every large automation vendor has used the specifications created by librarians.”
Andrew Pace, American Libraries, 2004

21. What ERMI Was Not

22. A Standard

23. EDItEUR review of ERMI
ERMI Phase 1 as a basis for a standard for license terms expression; commissioned from Rightscom
ERMI 1 was a valuable starting point, but further development required
Terms dictionary would need a more rigorous ontological structure
Proposed an <indecs>-based rights model: licenses are about events (permitted, prohibited, required, etc)

24. The DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative, Phase II (2006)
Training for License Term Mapping
(ARL/DLF collaboration)
E-Resource Usage Statistics
Protocol for automated delivery (“SUSHI”)
Statement of functional requirements
Data Standards
Data Dictionary revision
License Expression

25. License Information: Challenges

26. ERMI Terms of Use Elements
Fair Use Clause Indicator
Database Protection Override Indicator
All Rights Reserved Indicator
Citation Requirement Details
Authorized User Definition
Local Authorized User Definition Indicator
Other User Restriction Note
Other Use Restriction Note
Concurrent User
Digitally Copy*
Print Copy*
Scholarly Sharing*
Distance Education*
Interlibrary Loan Print or Fax*
Interlibrary Loan Secure Electronic Transmission*
Interlibrary Loan Electronic*
Interlibrary Loan Record Keeping Required Indicator
Course Reserve Print*
Course Reserve Electronic/ Cached Copy*
Electronic Link Permission*
Course Pack Print*
Course Pack Electronic*
Remote Access*

27. ERMI Permission Values
Permitted (explicit)
Permitted (interpreted)
Prohibited (explicit)
Prohibited (interpreted)
Silent (uninterpreted)
Not Applicable

28. ERMI Mapping Challenges
Different wording
Term buried in the license
License more granular than data element
Data element more granular than license
No match between license and data elements
Local interpretation

29. ONIX for Publications Licenses (ONIX-PL)
Joint License Expression Working Group (LEWG) sponsored by NISO, DLF, PLS and EDItEUR (2005)
now ONIX-PL Working Group (2008)
A structured ontology and XML messaging protocol for exchanging licensing information
ONIX-PL format specification v1.0 (2008)
Pilots underway by JISC and others
ONIX-ERMI mapping completed 2007

30. The Constructive Role of Ambiguity
China Alters Language On Taiwan
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 13, 2005
BEIJING, May Chinese President Hu Jintao proposed new diplomatic language Thursday aimed at ending the decades-old state of hostilities between China and Taiwan […]
Under the new language, Hu effectively agreed to open talks if Taiwan accepted the principle of "two shores, one China" while acknowledging that the two sides might differ on precisely what that term meant.

31. Silence, Interpreted
“The good thing about the law is it can be argued either way.”
-- Anonymous legal source

32. Enter SERU

33. Other Related Standards Developments post-ERMI
Usage Data: COUNTER and SUSHI
Knowledge-bases: KBART
Cost Data: CORE
Institutional Identifiers: I2

34. COUNTER: Counting Online Usage of Networked Electronic Resources
Code of Practice first released Jan 2003
Release 3 published Aug 2008
Code of Practice Addresses:
Content, format, delivery mechanisms and data processing rules for a set of core usage reports
Terminology
Layout and format of reports
Processing of usage data
Delivery of reports
So what does the Code of Practice address… note that this is not a formal standard like one would see from ISO or NISO. The COP is a voluntary set of guidelines that address
Terminology… make sure all vendors use the same term for various metrics
Layout and format of the report
Processing of usage data
What categories or filters should be available
As well as the delivery of the reports
We will talk about each of these in more detail

35. NISO Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI): Z39
A key project of the ERMI 2 initiative
Solves the problem of harvesting and managing usage data from a growing number of providers
A web-services model for requesting data that replaces the user’s need to download files from vendor’s website
The SUSHI client runs on the library’s server, usually associated with an ERM system.
The SUSHI server runs on the Content Provider’s server, and has access to the usage data.

36. SUSHI is Now a Requirement of the COUNTER 3 Code of Practice
Vendors must be SUSHI-compliant as of September 2009

37. Future of SUSHI: Beyond COUNTER reports
SUSHI was designed as a general protocol for retrieving XML “reports”
SUSHI can be used for non-COUNTER usage reports
SUSHI can also be used for other XML “messages”, for example, automate delivery of:
Holdings data with ONIX-SOH
License terms with ONIX PL
Source: Oliver Pesch Presentation < 37

38. KBART (Knowledge Base and Related Tools)
Joint effort of NISO and the UK Serials Group (launched January 2008)
Drraft guidelines for best practice to effect smoother interaction between members of the knowledge base supply chain
Content standards for holdings data exchange
Centralized information portal

39. NISO Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE): Z39.93-200x
DLF-ERMI White Paper on Interoperability between Acquisitions Modules of Integrated Library Systems and Electronic Resource Management Systems (January 2008)
Working Group Co-chairs
Ed Riding, SirsiDynix
Ted Koppel, Auto-Graphics
Facilitate transfer of acquisitions data between ILS and ERM systems
provide a common method of requesting cost-related information from an ILS for a specific electronic resource
Develop and refine the list of data elements to exchange
create a transport protocol useful in moving these data elements from one system to another.
Write a small number of use cases
Draft Standard for Trial Use available (March 2009)

40. I2: Institutional Identifiers Working Group
Co-chairs
Grace Agnew, Rutgers University
Tina Feick, Harrassowitz
A globally unique, extensible identifier for institutions for use in the information supply chain
E-Resources, Institutional Repositories, Library Resource Management
Related work: OCLC Networking Names

41. Learning from ERMI: some thoughts
Comprehensiveness is difficult
To describe
To build and implement
Example: e-metrics
Many useful sources, multiple views needed
E-resources and markets change quickly
Small-scale development works
Robust data exchange is critical 41

42. Library needs for e-resource data maipulation march relentlessly onward

43. Enter ERMI Data Standards Review

44. Goal: “Gap Analysis” Is the ERMI Data Dictionary still needed?
If so, what persistent structures should be instituted to revise and maintain it?
What other e-reource management needs remain unaddressed by current standards efforts?

45. Current E-Resource Standards Landscape

46. ALA Midwinter 2009 NISO-led Discussions: What We Heard
Discussed current ERM needs and future of ERMI with over a dozen domain experts:
Librarians, system developers, standards representatives, supply chain vendors
Libraries want:
Simplified license elements
Workflow tools and best practices
Authority control for products, vendors (including tracking vendor name changes, acquisitions & mergers)
Management of data elements for future interoperability and data transport
Holdings data for ebooks and journals – a huge pain point for many customers – ““this resource from this publisher / provider on this platform during this time period“

47. What We Heard: Flexibility
Need an ERMI lite for selected core elements and lots of free form notes – for business terms, resources in negotiation, etc.
Rapidly evolving business models – open access, pay-per-view…

48. What We Heard: Conflicting Inputs
Focus on data elements, leave application to system developers. User community should shape application and use
Libraries need best practices guidance to help them implement systems

49. What We Heard: ERMI Still Has Many Champions
“We still need ERMI to create a context for how all of the pieces need to work together”
“ERMI has done a good job of identifying and organizing the problem, not necessarily solving it”
“ERMI should be the master custodian of data elements “
“One thing ERMI has done well is to define a data dictionary that different systems can use to move data around”

50. Major Takeaways About Standards About Libraries About Systems
ERMI data model is still important for reference and context
Data dictionary is key to functionality and interoperability
License elements / values need simplification – ONIX-PL may or may not serve library needs
Vendor and product identity management is an ongoing problem
need to accurately represent vendor-resource-holdings relationships
need to manage resources and holdings in a standardized and shareable way
About Libraries
Libraries need help with workflows and best practices
About Systems
Existing systems are under-developed
Libraries need more specific functionality – ability to import / export data, support everyday business activities / functions
Data exchange capability is critical

51. NISO ERM Data Standards Review: Goals
Perform a ‘gap analysis’ of functions and needs unaddressed by existing standards
More data-gathering through surveys, conference-related focus groups, webinars
Make recommendations for future work
Membership currently being formed
Seek participation from librarians, systems and content management vendors, publishers
A mailing list will be set up for wider communication
Report due to NISO Business Topic Committee April 2010
More information at

52. Future Data Movement and Management Landscape Features?
Budget constraints are real, getting tougher, and not going away
Libraries need to get more efficient
We need less:
Silo-ization
Redundancy of effort
We need more:
Modularity, specialized applications
Data sharing and transport
“Light weight” standards
Flexible, dynamic structures for “knitting” pieces together where needed 52

53. Broader Challenges “It’s about agility and flexibility”
As library systems and services move from the local level to the network level, how do we ensure agility and adaptability?
Can our organizations evolve fast enough?