ONIX-PL Working Group

This joint NISO/EDItEUR working group, chaired by Alicia Wise (PLS) has been formed and held its first conference call on October 1st. The draft working group charge is to:

• Actively support and contribute to the continued development of the ONIX - PL standard for licence expression to ensure it is fit for use by all types of stakeholders.
• Communicate with all stakeholders about the current state of ONIX - PL development and what it means to them, and champion its use.
• Report regularly to the sponsoring bodies - DLF, EDItEUR, NISO, and PLS - about progress and plans.

ERMI Survey Subcommittee

This subcommittee is being led by Ivy Anderson and Tim Jewell and is tasked with conducting a survey of the current and emerging place of ERMI within the broader ERM landscape. More specifically, the group will seek to understand the extent to which the ERMI documents have been incorporated into the design of current ERM products and services, libraries that have implemented ERMS are making use of ERMI data elements and values, and mapping between ERMI and ONIX-PL has been adopted by vendors and is likely to used by libraries. The outcome of this survey will be a recommendation from this sub-committee to the Topic Committee as to next steps. They will be soliciting help to create a survey that will be looking at:

• Future data migration
• Data import into ERMS
• Interoperability

CORE (Cost of Resource Exchange) Working Group

This group was formed in 2008 to create a specification that facilitates the transfer of cost and related financial information from an Integrated Library System (ILS) Acquisitions module (the source) to an Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS) (the requestor). Working Group members have submitted use cases, and a subcommittee has analyzed the use cases and categorize them into 3-5 major use areas. The Working Group is now looking at other standards and see if there are any extant that fulfill the requirement, and see what kind of data is already being exchanged, and then prioritize and determine what elements the group will want this standard to exchange. The group hopes to complete the data element definition within the next month and begin discovering or creating a suitable transport protocol for them by the end of November. The Working Group is working towards the goal of a draft first version of the CORE standard by the end of 2008, at which time a draft standard for trial use should be ready to implement. A September 9, 2008 progress report is now available.

I² (Institutional Identifiers) Working Group

This group was formed in 2008 to develop a standard for an institutional identifier that can be implemented in all library and publishing environments. The standard will include definition of the metadata required to be collected with the identifier and what uses can be made of that metadata. The Working Group has identified top scenarios to develop and is in the process of forming Scenario Development Groups (within the Working Group and including external key players for each scenario). A September 22, 2008 status report is now available.

NISO RP-7-2008, SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding

Judy Luther and Clint Chamberlain, with the assistance of Karen Wetzel, NISO Standards Program Manager, and Maryann Karinch, NISO Communications Consultant, are continuing to develop resources and reaching out to the community to encourage increased use of this recommended practice. Currently, the group is:

• Updating the SERU website
• Updating the SERU registry (including the development of a web sign-up form)
• Reactivating use of the SERUinfo mailing list
• Creating organization-specific guides (publisher/content provider and library/consortia)
• Creating advertising for NISO publications
• Engaging in outreach (presentations and articles)
• Developing a logo for posting on implementer websites and to identify content that can be used with SERU.

ANSI/NISO Z39.7-2004 Information Services and Use: Metrics & statistics for libraries and information providers--Data Dictionary

The standard is now a continuously maintained standard with a standing committee. The standard is a interactive, web-accessible database available at www.niso.org/dictionary. The committee's last meeting, at ALA Annual, reviewed comments and determined changes that would be made. Those changes were all added to the site by August 28, 2008; a change log is available at the site.

The standing committee had developed a wiki to assist with a review of performance measures as a first step to determining the need for new standards work in this area. This is being transitioned to the Standing Committee's workspace on the NISO website so that the group can refocus on this project.

ANSI/NISO Z39.93-1997, The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) Protocol

The SUSHI Standing Committee and its roster were officially approved in August 2008. Implementation and maintenance activities underway include:

• Corrected SUSHI and COUNTER/SUSHI schema were added to the SUSHI website in May 2008.
• New versions of the sushi (1.6), counter_sushi (3.0), and counter (3.0) schemas are available on a test webpage for review and comment by the SUSHI Developers list.
• A SUSHI Webinar is being held October 2, 2008, with additional resources added to the website.
• The SUSHI Standing Committee is considering moving SUSHI from a periodically maintained standard to a continuously maintained standard to allow for more frequent updates.
• The SUSHI Standing Committee is in the process of recruiting developers to monitor the implementer list and assist other developers with the technology. They have come up with a name for the role: "Sushi-Shokunin".

ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2005, Specifications for the Digital Talking Book

A revision of this standard has been approved by the NISO membership; the Working Group is being formed and an initial group of interested parties has met. This group, nicknamed "ZedNext" is made up of the existing DAISY Advisory Committee and additional experts who were identified through a public call for participation.

The group held their first face-to-face meeting on the Google campus on September 16-18. Attendees discussed that DAISY's original concept had been a distribution format for books that were generally created for print format. Organizations are now looking to use DAISY for authoring, e.g. an original talking book; an e book, or a Braille publication.

The current plan for the NISO/DAISY standard revision is to issue the standard in two parts: 1) an XML authoring framework for publishers and republishers, and 2) a companion format specifically for distribution.

Z39.83 - 2008 NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) – Parts 1 and 2

This standard was put to ballot and approved by the NISO membership. A total of 53 votes (70% of NISO membership) were cast (39 in favor, 14 abstentions). The NCIP Implementers Group is currently preparing responses to the comments to post to the public along with the final standard, at which time the standard will be sent to ANSI for approval.

NISO/UKSG KBART (Knowledge Bases and Related Tools) Working Group

This group was formed in 2008 to develop and publish guidelines for best practice to effect smoother interaction between members of the knowledge base supply chain. The group has published a Glossary of Relevant Terms and is working on the report with the following sections (with Working Group members designated as "section owners"):

• Introduction
• An Overview of Existing Problems
• Relevant Terminology
• The Current Supply Chain and Transfer Problems
• Education