David Martin Digital Policy Management: JISC/BL Workshop 24 April 2006 ONIX for Licensing Terms

What is ONIX? Background to ONIX for Licensing Terms ONIX Publisher License format JISC projects Progress and prospects ONIX for Licensing Terms

A family of XML formats for communicating rich metadata about books, serials and other published media, using common data elements, composites, and code lists XML Schemas, DTDs and user documentation Developed and maintained by EDItEUR through a growing number of partnerships with other organisations ONIX

ONIX for Books: now adopted in at least a dozen countries First release in 2000: Release 3.0 in 2007 ONIX for Serials (with NISO): three application families Serial Online Holdings (SOH): Version 1.0 Serial Products & Subscriptions (SPS) and Serial Release Notifications (SRN): pilot Version 0.9 ONIX for DOI registration: mEDRA and Nielsen BookData Existing ONIX formats

Growth of digital collections in libraries Need to automate management of digital resources Need to relate licenses to institutional policies Variation in licensing terms Complexity of license documentation Uncertainty at the point of use How could publishers and vendors help? Licensing terms – the problem

Express license terms in machine-readable form Communicate electronically from vendor to subscriber Enable license terms to be loaded directly into an ERMS But this needs a standard... Deliver license terms digitally

DLF ERMI project (phase 1) Set out to describe and define architectures needed to manage collections of licensed digital resources Problem definition/road map Functional requirements Workflow and entity relationship diagrams Data element dictionary (inc licensing terms) ERMS data structure Background

ERMI Phase 1 as a basis for a standard for license terms expression; commissioned from Rightscom ERMI 1 was a valuable starting point, but further development required Terms dictionary would need a more rigorous (onto)logical structure Proposed an -based rights model: licenses are about events (permitted, prohibited, required, etc) EDItEUR review of ERMI

Proof of concept project in 2005, supported by the Publishers Licensing Society and JISC Work-in-progress drafts published on the EDItEUR website Two JISC projects under way in 2005/2006 International License Expression Working Group (LEWG) sponsored by NISO, DLF, PLS and EDItEUR, to provide input to ONIX development and to ensure liaison with ERMI 2 ONIX for Licensing Terms

The first member of what will become a family of ONIX Licensing Terms formats, using the same underlying structures An XML message format that can deliver a structured expression of a publishers license for the use of (digital) resources, from publisher to agent to subscribing institution (or consortium) A specification, an XML schema, and a formal dictionary of controlled values ONIX Publisher License message

Those parts of the written license that may be actionable in an ERMS need to be delivered in a fully machine-interpretable form Those parts of the license that are not actionable can be quoted within the XML expression and categorised in a controlled way, so that the subscribing institution can create a knowledge base of its licenses that can be searched consistently Structured?

Not just terms specifying permitted and prohibited usages and related conditions, though these are essential; but also, for example... Terms specifying notice periods and permitted dates for changes – to support a diary system Terms specifying bases of fee calculation in successive license years – to support budgeting and checking suppliers invoices Actionable?

Allow a publishers license to be loaded automatically into an institutions ERMS Enable the institution to map license terms against its own resource management policies and identify compatibilities and incompatibilities Make it easier to inform users An essential part of making it easier for libraries to manage complex electronic resources – but only a part. The objective...

Negotiation and mapping of a complete publisher license - BIC, John Wiley and Cranfield University Definition of tools and services to help publishers produce ONIX-PL message – BIC, ALPSP, Loughborough University Through these projects, we are extending and refining the draft format, and setting up an initial dictionary JISC projects,

The first JISC project is close to completion ONIX-PL format specification essentially finished, though not yet published Accompanied by a first release of elements of the ONIX Licensing Terms Dictionary Complete expression of the Wiley EAL Academic License (except for fee calculation elements) Progress to date

Message header: from, to, date, etc Preamble: license identification, parties, dates, signatories, etc Definitions Structured terms Term citations Components of the message

Agents: persons and organizations referred to in the license Resources: licensed resources may be defined in a document separate from the license expression, and that could itself be an ONIX file; but we also need to define resources that are derived from usage, eg permitted extracts Services, Dates/Times, Periods, Places, Events, States, Usages Documents referred to from the license expression Definitions

Supply terms: terms relating to the supply of or access to licensed materials Usage terms: terms related to permitted or prohibited usage Payment terms: terms related to fee calculation rules and payment rules Others may be added if found necessary Structured terms

Terms handled wholly by citation under a controlled category header; eg assignment; force majeure; warranties Terms handled substantially by citation, but with some structured elements; eg termination clauses, with structured information about date limits and notice periods; or rights to continued access after termination, with structured information about resources to which such rights apply Term citations

A controlled set of values and definitions that licensors can tap into and use as is, or take as a basis for their own variant if necessary But there are grounds for optimism that different wording in different licenses may rather often map acceptably into the same expression in XML The importance of the dictionary

It all looks and sounds complex It IS complex, but not as complex as it looks Mapping to XML forces clarification of what the license says, but not necessarily greater specificity – deliberate generality is OK As well as the license expression standard, we will need high-level tools for licensors to work with in order to create ONIX-PL expressions We will need ERMS that can input the messages and map them against institutional policies What are we learning?

The second JISC project will profile the kind of tools that are needed for publishers Experience with the work to date is already giving us ideas on how they might look Development, however, will be a significant effort We need to, and have already started to, engage the ERMS developers on the receiving end Probably two or more years work ahead? Next steps

EDItEUR: ERMI 1 report: David Martin More information