JISC

Book Industry Communication, ALPSP, and LoughboroughUniversity explored the potential benefits of ONIX for Licensing Terms with publishers and libraries and developed a specification for an tool to facilitate the mapping of licences. In a follow-on extension, the project developed a fully functional prototype tool called OPLE (ONIX-PL Editor).

Full Project Title

Electronic Expression of Licensing Terms: Specifying Publisher Tools and Library Benefits

Summary

Libraries sign licence agreements for a wide range of digital resources, and the terms contained in these agreements can vary widely.  In order for libraries to comply with the licences, they need to be able to communicate the licence terms to their users, so users know what they can do when they use the resources.  This is all difficult if paper licence agreements are stored in file cabinets.  What is needed is the ability to express licence terms electronically so that the terms are actionable. EDItEUR has been developing ONIX for Licensing Terms (OLT) to fill this gap.  

Two PALS 2 projects focused on implementing OLT in a practical way.  The first project (XML Expression of a Publisher/Library Licence) developed the first licence in ONIX Publications Licence (ONIX-PL) format.  For OLT to be used on a wide scale, tools will be needed to facilitate mapping licences into ONIX-PL.  This second project followed on from the first to gather requirements for the tools and explore the potential benefits of OLT with publishers and libraries.  Book Industry Communication (BIC), the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP), and LoughboroughUniversity collaborated on the project work.  The editing tool was developed in a project extension.

The first task was to introduce publishers to OLT.  A promotional piece on OLT was drafted and posted as an ‘advice note’ on the ALPSP web site.  Awareness-raising was done via e-lists and conferences, and publishers were encouraged to participate in the project.  Five publishers were selected for interview to understand how they handled licensing, get their views on the functional requirements, and explore the potential benefits and issues.  

The next step was to consider the potential benefits of OLT from the library perspective.  A very successful workshop was held at Loughborough University with attendees from several libraries. They found that libraries were as interested in having tools as publishers.  Having licences in electronic format would not only improve compliance, but could help libraries to compare licence terms and negotiate licences.  The end result of the consultation activities was a specification for a drafting tool that will allow both publishers and libraries to create ONIX-PL licences using templates.  

Project Extension to Develop the Tools

The work of the two PALS 2 projects on OLT was well received by the publisher, library, and vendor communities. JISC, the Publishers Licensing Society, and EDItEUR funded a project extension to develop the specification into a fully functional prototype tool.  OPLE (ONIX-PL Editor) is an open source tool that allows both licensors and licensees to create ONIX-PL expressions of their licences and to revise drafts during the negotiation process.  The system is based on the use of a library of templates that can be used to create precise expressions of individual licences.

The related project (XML Expression of a Publisher/Library Licence) has developed the first templates for use with OPLE, templates for the JISC Model Licences.  EDItEUR is also working with vendors of ERM systems to facilitate the implementation of OLT in libraries. 

Outcomes

The OPLE tool will enable both publishers and libraries to map existing and future licences into the standard ONIX-PL format. JISC Collections is already using OPLE to map all their individual licences into the ONIX-PL format and make them available to libraries in a standard machine-readable form.

Looking forward, EDItEUR will set up an OPLE users listserv for current and potential users to provide feedback and suggest improvements and additional functionality for OPLE. SourceForge will be a valuable forum for discussion of a more technical nature concerning the technical design and implementation of OPLE.

Outputs

Reports

The project’s Final Report (PDF) to JISC explains the project work in detail and includes all the outputs.  The six appendixes are listed here in numerical order and under the relevant headings below.  

• Appendix 1 (PDF) – ALPSP Advice Note
• Appendix 2 (PDF) – Licence Editing Tools Initial Outline
• Appendix 3 (PDF) – Interviews with Publishers
• Appendix 4 (PDF) – Loughborough Library Workshop Report
• Appendix 5 (PDF) – Standards for Expression of Licensing Terms Seminar: Programme & Delegates
• Appendix 6 (PDF) – Standards for Expression of Licensing Terms Seminar: Presentations
• Appendix 7 (PDF) – Requirements and Specification for an ONIX-PL Licence Expression Drafting System.

The Final Report on OPLE (PDF) describes how the tool was designed and developed and summarises the functionality.  Two appendixes give added detail.

• Appendix 1 (PDF) – Functional Review of OPLE Version 1. This documents the functional capabilities of v.1 against the original functional requirements and design spec.
• Appendix 2 (PDF) – OPLE Technical Development Issues. This expands on some of the design decisions.

Tools

OPLE is an open source tool. The tool and associated documentation will be available from the OPLE area at Source Forge.

Research

• ALPSP Advice Note (Appendix 1 (PDF) of final report) – A short promotional piece explaining OLT to publishers and encouraging them to participate in the project
• Licence Editing Tools Initial Outline (Appendix 2 (PDF) of final report) – An early functional spec for the tools sent to the publishers that were interviewed
• Interviews with Publishers (Appendix 3 (PDF) of final report) – A summary of the interviews with publishers regarding the implementation of OLT, potential benefits, and possible issues.

Specifications

• Requirements and Specification for an ONIX-PL Licence Expression Drafting System (Appendix 7 (PDF) of final report)

Events

• Library workshop on OLT, LoughboroughUniversity, 22 May 2006 (Appendix 4 (PDF) of final report) – A very interesting account of the workshop, including how librarians would use the tools and the potential benefits
• Seminar on Electronic Expression of Licensing Terms, London, 5 July 2006 – This half-day seminar was held to present ONIX for Licensing Terms and results of the two JISC projects to publishers and Librarians.  The programme and delegates are included as Appendix 5 (PDF) of the final report, and the presentations as Appendix 6.  The presentations can also be found at http://www.editeur.org/onix_licensing.html.

Publications

• Francis Cave , Brian Green and David Martin, ONIX for Licensing Terms: Standards for the Electronic Communication of Usage Terms, Ariadne, January 2007, Issue 50 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue50/green-et-al/

Presentations

• Brian Green, ONIX for Licensing Terms, presentation at Discovery and Access: Standards and the Information Chain, London, 7 December 2006: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/pals-2006/

Further Information

• ONIX for Licensing Terms: http://www.editeur.org/onix_licensing.html
• PALS 2 page outlining aims and objectives: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_pals2/project_onixlt2.aspx
• Project contact: Brian Green, EDItEUR, brian@bic.org.uk