NISO Issues Best Practices for Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU)

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Date:  Thu, 7 Feb 2008 13:31:47 -0500
Subject:  NISO Issues Best Practices for Shared E-Resource Understanding 
(SERU)
From:  Cynthia Hodgson (NISO) <chodgson_at_niso.org>



Slightly more than one year after the Shared E-Resource Understanding 
(SERU) Working
Group was formed, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) 
has issued
"SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding" as part of its 
Recommended
Practice series (NISO-RP-7-2008). The SERU document's publication follows a
six-month trial use period, during which time librarians and publishers 
reported on their
experiences using the draft document.

SERU offers publishers and librarians the opportunity to save both the 
time and the
costs associated with a negotiated and signed license agreement by 
agreeing to operate
within a framework of shared understanding and good faith.

"SERU is a wonderful example of librarians and publishers working 
together to create
a new option for electronic resource transactions that is convenient and 
legal," said
Working Group co-chair Karla Hahn, Director, Office of Scholarly 
Communications,
Association of Research Libraries. "Small publishers, especially, will 
be able to use
SERU to reduce licensing costs making them more competitive and easier for
librarians to work with."

Co-chair Judy Luther, President of Informed Strategies, added, "Based on 
a decade
of licensing experience, SERU represents widely adopted practices 
already in place
in North America, and is both library and publisher friendly."

"The SERU Working Group developed a document that addresses the key 
issues in
a manner that is nuanced and creative, and they did it in record time," 
said Todd
Carpenter, NISO's Managing Director. "The feedback we received during 
the trial
use period was uniformly positive." The trial use period ran from June 
20 through
December 20, 2007.

The Recommended Practice and a SERU FAQ are available from the SERU
webpage (http://www.niso.org/committees/SERU/). In accordance with plans
laid out by the SERU Working Group, which concluded its work with 
publication
of the Recommended Practice, NISO will produce additional materials to help
publishers and libraries adopt a SERU approach, maintain a registry of 
participants,
and continue to promote, educate, and plan for regular review and 
evaluation of
SERU.

Note: This announcement was cross-posted to multiple lists.


Cynthia Hodgson
NISO Technical Editor Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
Email: chodgson_at_niso.org
Phone: 301-654-2512

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