Press Releases & News

COUNTER New Schedule for publication of Release 3

5 July 08: The draft Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice for Journals and Databases http://www.projectcounter.org/r3/r3_release.pdf was published in March 2008; comments on it were accepted until 31 May 2008. During that period feedback from librarians and vendors was both extensive and very helpful. The COUNTER Executive Committee has reflected on that feedback and will modify Release 3 as a result. The most significant modifications will be:

• Reporting usage of journal archives: while the requirement for reporting the usage of journal archives will remain, it has become clear that not all COUNTER-compliant vendors will be able to provide Journal Report 1a: Number of Successful Full-text Requests from an Archive by Month and Journal, as specified in the draft Release 3. For this reason, vendors will be offered the option of providing either Journal Report 1a as specified above, or a new Journal Report 5 that breaks down usage in the existing Journal Report 1 by year of publication, which will allow customers to separate out archival usage from current subscription usage.
• A new, optional report that allows the reporting of usage of online journals and books available on the same platform to be included in the same COUNTER report: this reflects the fact that a growing number of vendors are making online journals and books available on the same platform, often as part of the same licence.

To allow sufficient time for these, as well as other, smaller modifications, to be incorporated into the Code of Practice, the publication of the final version of Release 3 has been postponed from 30 June 2008 to 31 July 2008.

It has also been decided to allow vendors more time to implement Release 3. This takes into account the concerns expressed by vendors that, while they support SUSHI (http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi) and plan to implement the SUSHI protocols that enable customers to automate the collection and consolidation of COUNTER usage reports from different sources, they will require more time for implementation. For this reason the deadline date for implementation by vendors of Release 3 of the COUNTER Code of Practice will be postponed from 1 January 2009 to 1 August 2009.

Onix for Serials Released

London, UK June, 2008. EDItEUR, the international group coordinating development of the standards infrastructure for electronic commerce in the book and serials industries, is pleased to announce the availability of new versions of both the ONIX for Serials SRN (Serials Release Notification) message format and the SPS (Serials Products and Subscription) message formats. Information about these formats can be found at http://www.editeur.org/onixserials/ONIX_SRN09.html and http://www.editeur.org/onixserials/ONIX_SPS092.html . Both formats are currently being piloted. Please send comments and suggestions to brian@bic.org.uk .

ONIX for Serials is a family of XML formats for communicating information about serial products and subscription information, using the design principles and many of the elements defined in ONIX for Books.

The SRN message is used for communicating information about the physical publication or electronic availability of one or more serial releases. Content suppliers, content consumers and intermediaries will all find it advantageous to send and/or receive Serial Release Notifications to advertise the availability of new content, helping to minimize unnecessary claims, and allowing the automatic maintenance of precise holdings in online catalogs and link resolvers.

SRN version 0.92 contains two new messages. The ONIX SRN Content Item Description contains metadata describing individual articles within a release and can be used to distribute tables of contents for serial releases. The ONIX SRN Content Item Extended Description described individual articles in more detail, including the same information as the ONIXSRNContentItemDescription message, plus enough additional information (such as subjects, abstracts and related resources) to generate entries in abstracting and indexing databases..

SPS version 0.92 contains a revised and improved structure for transmitting prices. In addition, the <JournalIssue> and <Embargo> composites have been replaced by a <Coverage> composite, providing for more precise expression of the enumeration and chronology of issues included in a subscription product.

The EDItEUR website ( http://www.editeur.org/onixserials.html) includes links to the XML schemas for these formats as well as an overview document and detailed user guides for implementation.

The development of ONIX for Serials has been a joint project of EDItEUR and NISO, the US National Information Standards Organization.

About EDItEUR: EDItEUR is the international group coordinating development of the standards infrastructure for electronic commerce in the book and serials industries. EDItEUR is a truly international organization with 90 members from 17 countries, including Australia, Canada, Japan, South Africa, United States and most of the European countries.

About NISO: NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment.

Keeping Within the Law (KWtL): minimize your risk of legal infringement

A new copyright and information law website by Paul Pedley

http://www.kwtl.co.uk

Overstretched library and information professionals need to keep up-to-date with the raft of legislation and case law relating to information use, and its implications for the profession. For example, they must find themselves placed in the difficult position of, on the one hand, being asked by their users to provide access to content, whilst, on the other hand, needing to be mindful of the legal rights of the creators and distributors of intellectual property.

Consulting a copy of the legislation is not straightforward, given that the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988 has been amended many times over the past two decades. This new copyright and information law website, from Facet Publishing, the publishing arm of CILIP, provides 24/7 access to authoritative, up-to-date information on all aspects of information law. With increasing concerns about risk and tougher measures to crack down on non-compliance, Keeping Within the Law (KWtL) can help library and information professionals proactively minimize the risk of legal infringement and effectively manage their compliance strategies.

KWtL sets out the relevant legislation and case law together with best practice guidance in a clear, logical and fully searchable format, to simplify the task of library and information professionals in advising on information use.

The website contains:

• 1,600+ authoritative information resources at your fingertips – fully searchable access to an incredibly rich and continually growing database, divided into four key subject areas to increase your efficiency and save you valuable research time
• a subscriber-only monthly newsletter – providing on the job advice and comment
• up-to-the-minute legal intelligence – Paul Pedley, Head of Research at the Economist Intelligence Unit, selects regular news relevant to you, through his exclusive subscriber-only news alerts and blog
• useful resources, links to websites, factsheets, government reports, surveys, best practice guidelines, Q&A's, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis of pertinent issues and much more, to make your job easier.

This indispensable product is a one-stop shop for all you need to know about copyright and information law. A must-have for anyone working within the information stakeholder community: information suppliers, professionals and providers advising on legal issues. It is also a useful reference point for legal advisers, academics and students of information law. Visit http://www.kwtl.co.uk for further details.