KMLM List

[Charlie Rapple <charlie.rapple@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

With apologies for the delay, please find attached February's KBART  
monitoring group update. We're getting closer to releasing our phase I  
report, and expect to be sending this to you for your comments during  
April. Please don't hesitate to contact me or Peter McCracken (peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
) if you have any questions in the meantime.

Many thanks for your continued interest in KBART!
all best wishes,

Charlie [and Peter].

p.s. this report is available on the website, www.uksg.org/kbart, if  
you have any trouble reading the email.

KBART Monitoring Group Report
February 2009

1. Report

Some considerable time has been spent editing the report. We now have  
a clear structure and several completed sections but the editing  
process has (as expected) raised several issues that require further  
discussion, whether in terms of agreeing what will and won’t be  
included in this phase I report, or the precise details of the  
recommendations that we will make. We think it’s important to take our  
time at this point to ensure that we are providing guidelines that  
will both resolve the problems we’ve identified but will also be  
achievable and supported by the stakeholders we are addressing.

The report encompasses the more fundamental recommendations from the  
original research report from which KBART was developed, including:

§  File format

§  Mandatory and optional fields

§  Common approaches for presenting data within fields

§  Handling of packages

§  Frequency of data update

§  Collection mechanism



2. Testing

A selection of volunteer stakeholders will soon begin testing the  
report’s recommendations to check that what we believe will work in  
theory does actually work (and make a difference) in practice.



3. PR

KBART’s authority is already being recognised both as we speak at  
conferences and as members are consulted for advice by others in the  
community. Lately, we’ve spoken at:

§  Charleston (November 08)

§  Online Information (December 08)

§  ALA Midwinter (January 09)

§  ER&L (February 09)

Forthcoming presentations include:

§  Council of Science Editors (March 09)

§  ACRL (March 09)

§  UKSG (April 09)

§  NASIG (June 09)

We continue to strive to find opportunities to address publishers.



KBART’s progress will also be presented at a NISO webinar on 8th April  
– for more information, see http://www.niso.org/news/events/2009/kbart09



4. Next steps

We expect to release the final report for review by monitors and  
sponsoring committees in April. We will then review and incorporate  
feedback and aim to release the report publicly in June. Thereafter  
the group will progress with KBART Phase II. The scope for this  
remains under discussion but may incorporate any of:

§  Non-text materials

§  Localised holdings transfer

§  Greater automation

§  Requirements for a centralised solution (how to fund, how to manage  
etc)

§  Increased focus on subscription agents' role

We plan to liaise with OCLC to clarify other aspects of OpenURL  
maintenance responsibilities and assess how else KBART might usefully  
direct its activities. We’ve also recently held discussions with  
CrossRef about how they can complement KBART’s work by providing  
related services to their members. CrossRef will likely proceed with  
developing a service that offers to collate its members’ KBART-related  
data for onward distribution to, or collection by, link resolver  
managers.





www.uksg.org/kbart

www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart


Charlie Rapple, Peter McCracken

26 February 2009