[Sigdl-l] Call for Participation: NISO Launches New Project to Develop Recommended Practices for Exchanging Serial Content

[Cynthia Hodgson]

NISO Launches New Project to Develop Recommended Practices for Exchanging
Serial Content

Interested participants from libraries, publishers, content aggregators, and
repositories are encouraged to contact NISO

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) voting members have
approved a new project to develop recommended practices for Packaging and
Exchanging Serial Content. Many different organizations-libraries, archives,
indexing services, content aggregators, publishers, and content
creators-need to exchange and work with digital files that make up serial
content. Generally, the files are aggregated in some type of "package" that
can vary significantly in format and structure and contain anywhere from
several files for a single article to over a million files for a full
journal title backfile. This new NISO initiative will develop a recommended
practice defining the rules to be used to create a package of serial
content, allowing both the exchange of content and the automation of
processes to receive and manage this content.

"The Library of Congress routinely collects digital materials for our
national collection through copyright mandatory deposit," states Leslie
Johnston, Chief of Repository Development at the Library of Congress and one
of the project proposers. "In our proof of concept phase for delivery of
e-serials, we accepted all publisher-submitted metadata and content file
types and, as expected, we saw significant variance in file and directory
naming, part identification, file format combinations, and the accompanying
manifest (which was often missing). To efficiently receive and process
e-serials on an ongoing basis and scale the processes to manage expected
future volumes, we need a standardized protocol for how these e-serials will
be provided."

"Standards like the Journal Article Tag Suite (ANSI/NISO Z39.96-2012)
provide a model for creating an XML structure for an article," explains
Kimberly A. Tryka, Staff Scientist at the National Library of Medicine and a
project proposer, "but related items in the article are referenced by
linking and not as part of a package. The EPUB 3 specification includes the
packaging of digital content, but it is designed for viewing of that content
in an e-reader. There are no standard methods that specifically address the
need for packaging e-serial content in a way that it can be interchanged and
machine-processed for storage, archival, and retrieval purposes. This new
NISO initiative will seek to fill that gap."

"NISO's Recommended Practices for Online Supplemental Journal Article
Materials (NISO RP-15-2013) recommends the use of a standardized packaging
format to transfer digital content," states Nettie Lagace, NISO's Associate
Director for Programs. "This NISO project will define that standard
packaging practice and complement the recommendations about supplemental
materials."

Participation in the new NISO initiative is encouraged from libraries,
publishers, content aggregators, and repositories. Individuals interested in
participating on this working group should contact Nettie Lagace
(nlagace at niso.org).

 

Cynthia Hodgson

Technical Editor / Consultant

National Information Standards Organization

chodgson at niso.org

301-654-2512

 

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