ONIX for Licensing Terms
ONIX is a family of standards for communicating rich metadata about books, serials, and other published media, using common data elements. The ONIX standards include ONIX for Books, ONIX for Serials, and ONIX for Licensing Terms. ONIX for Licensing Terms is a new format for expressing and communicating licence terms between systems using a standard XML schema.
What it is
ONIX for Licensing Terms is a new ONIX standard for expressing and communicating licence terms between systems using a standard XML schema.
Background
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 to fill this gap.
The article below (Cave, 2007) describes why and how OLT was developed. EDItEUR has built on the work of the Digital Library Federation (DLF) Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI) and the joint EDItEUR/NISO work on ONIX for Serials. An initial ‘proof of concept’ project was completed early in 2005, and the JISC PALS 2 projects started work on the practical implementation later that year.
How it Works
The first manifestation of ONIX for Licensing Terms arising out of these projects is the ONIX Publications Licence format (ONIX-PL). ONIX-PL will support the communication of licensing terms for electronic resources from a publisher to a user institution (e.g. an academic library or consortium), either directly or through a subscription agent.
It is envisaged that ONIX-PL will work in the following way. A given licence agreed by a publisher and library is expressed in ONIX-PL format and the licence terms are defined in a data dictionary. The licence is sent to the library’s ERM system as an XML message. The ERM system looks after user authentication and links the actionable licence terms to the relevant resources. When users access a resource, they are then informed about permitted uses.
The Standard
Details about the standard can be found on the ONIX for Licensing Terms web site. Work to develop the standard is overseen by a joint EDItEUR/DLF/NISO/PLS License Expression Working Group with members from all stakeholder sectors including publishers, content hosts, agents, libraries, and systems vendors. The Working Group monitors and makes recommendations regarding the further development of standards relating to electronic resources and licence expression, including the ERMI and EDItEUR work, and engages actively in the development of the ONIX-PL licence messaging specification.
OLT in the PALS Programmes
EDItEUR/Book Industry Communication (BIC) coordinated two projects in the PALS 2 programme on Electronic Expression of Licensing Terms, each involving several partners. Both projects had extensions to create further deliverables for the community.
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Specifying Publisher Tools and Library Benefits
– The main project explored the potential benefits of ONIX for Licensing Terms with publishers and libraries and developed a specification for an editing tool to facilitate the mapping of licences. During the extension, a prototype tool was developed, the ONIX-PL Editor (OPLE).
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XML Expression of a Publisher/Library Licence
– The main project mapped the first licence to ONIX-PL format, a Wiley InterScience licence. During the extension, the JISC Model Licences for electronic journals (NESLi2), datasets, and e-books were mapped to ONIX-PL format. These model licences will be installed in the editing tool, so they can be used as templates for creating instances of specific publisher-library licences.
Further Information