KBART for Content Providers

Why KBART?

Adoption of Knowledge Bases And Related Tools (KBART) Recommended Practice (RP) gives content providers a single source of data to distribute to content aggregators, knowledge base (KB) suppliers, and libraries. KBART data is a universally-accepted data format that is human-readable for marketing and product information purposes as well as machine-readable to facilitate automated delivery of data to KB suppliers. Putting your data into KBART format makes it easier for librarians to use your content and for library users to find and access that same content on your platform, increasing your site traffic and ROI for libraries.

Knowledge bases are at the heart of modern library tools and systems for e-resources. Quality KB data delivered following the KBART RP makes it more likely that users will connect with your content through OpenURL, discover your content through the library's catalog, browse your titles using journal and book portals or A-Z lists, and makes finding your content through discovery services possible. Using KBART, one format is all you need for KB feeds and librarian title list information.

How KBART Works

KBART recommends public-facing and open metadata using your website to deliver up-to-date files for KB suppliers and librarians to use. By putting your data "out there", you can preempt many questions from both librarians and KB suppliers, saving your support and data teams time. Similarly, having a dedicated contact on hand to work directly with KB suppliers allows you to notify them of new products and their associated KBART files for quicker inclusion in KBs, and makes troubleshooting and resolving issues with your data easier and faster.

Once your KBART data is in suppliers' knowledge bases, they have all of the information that they need in order to effectively connect your customer libraries with the content they have licensed through you - titles, dates of availability, volume and issue information, title-level URL, freely accessible indicators for OA titles, and more. Electronic resource librarians then select your products and titles using suppliers' knowledge bases. Once your content is selected by the library, the KB suppliers' products know to surface your content in their journal/book portals, OpenURL results, catalogs, and discovery services (depending on the products the library has from the KB supplier).

After the library user finds your content, KBART helps get that user to your platform and using your content. Since the content still lives on your platform, authentication to your content and the user experience of your site is still under your control. A smooth and seamless experience may have that user looking at more of your content, and librarians will remember the higher usage the next time they are making purchasing decisions.

KBART Endorsement

The KBART Standing Committee members are information professionals from other content providers, knowledge base suppliers, and librarians, who are happy to help you learn KBART as you develop your data feeds and address any questions you may have about the Recommended Practice. We encourage you to submit sample data to the Standing Committee by email (kbart@niso.org) for review and feedback to ensure that it will meet the needs of your customers and work optimally with knowledge base suppliers' products. You may also ask general questions about the Recommended Practice and implementing it at your organization by joining the public KBART Interest email list. 

If your data meets the guidelines of KBART, the Standing Committee will endorse your files. Endorsement of your files by KBART Standing Committee will ensure that your files are reviewed by and meet the needs of content providers, knowledge base/discovery suppliers, and librarians. Being able to say that your files are KBART-endorsed will create confidence in the quality of your metadata to those who use your files. See the Endorsement page for more information on the process and perks of KBART endorsement.

The KBART Standing Committee thanks you on behalf of all parts of the industry's data supply chain - content providers, knowledge base suppliers, and librarians - for your interest in adopting KBART. We look forward to helping you make your title data work for you and your customers. 

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