# Presentation: 159458

## Electronic Resource Management 	and Rights Expression for Libraries

**Nathan D.M. Robertson**
**University of Maryland School of Law**
- “The Future of the Federal Library”
- Washington, DC
- 14 September 2005

## Talk Outline

- Electronic Resource Management
- Problem
- Solutions
- Outstanding Problems
- Rights Expression
- Issues
- Initiatives

## Electronic Resource Management

## ERM : The Problem

- “As libraries have worked to incorporate electronic resources into their collections, services and operations, most have found their existing Integrated Library Systems to lack important functionality to support these new resources.”
- — Digital Library Federation Electronic Resource Management Initiative, August 2004

## Data Fields

- Access URL (856)

- Title (245)

- Vendor (acq)

- Publisher (260)

- Renewal period (acq)

- Public display? (staff-only)

- Provider

- Vendor technical contact

- Permission to Archive

- Number of concurrent users

- Permission to ILL

- Authorized users

- License reviewer

- License period

- Consortial pricing structure

- Citation requirements

- Authorized locations

- Perpetual Access

- IP registration instructions

- Governing jurisdiction

- Cure period for breach

- Proxy server status

- Z39.50 attributes

- Subscriber branding

- Troubleshooting/ incident log

- Product trial

- Indemnification by licensee

- Maintenance window

- Scholarly sharing permission

## Data Relationships

- Electronic Version

**Data Relationships**

- Print Version

- Interface

- License

- License

- License

## Workflow

- Workflow in the print world is relatively easy
- Physical object moves to prompt action
- Processes within existing systems act or prompt action
- Systems and needs are well-established
- Not so in the e-world
- No physical object
- No existing systems
- Systems are new

## What You Need to Know, When You Need to Know It. . . .

- Context-sensitive presentation of information
- Only ILL staff need to know about ILL limitations
- Only authorized users need to see e-journal (maybe)
- Relevant data relationships
- Print cancellation and e-access
- Consortial responsibilities, pricing
- Ticklers

## ERM: Solutions

- Data. . . .
- Relationships. . . .
- Workflow management. . . .
- Relevant, task-specific data presentation. . . .
- We need:
*Standards* and *Software*!

## Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI)

- Informal meeting, ALA Annual 2001
- Exploratory NISO/DLF workshop, May 2002
- Official DLF Initiative in October 2002:
- Describe architectures needed to manage large collections of licensed e-resources
- Establish lists of elements and definitions
- Write and publish XML Schemas/DTDs
- Promote best practices and standards for data interchange

## DLF ERMI Report, August 2004

- _[http://www.diglib.org/pubs/dlfermi0408](http://www.diglib.org/pubs/dlfermi0408)_
- Final Report
- Appendices:
- A: Functional Requirements
- B: Workflow Flowchart
- C: Entity Relationship Diagram
- D: Data Element Dictionary
- E: Data Structure
- F: XML Investigation

## ERMI Report

- Describes the problem
- Outlines existing solutions and efforts
- MIT’s VERA
- JHU’s HERMES
- UCLA’s ERDb
- Penn State’s ERLIC2
- ... many others
- Introduces the appendices. . . .

## ERMI A: Functional Requirements

- 47 major requirements in 8 categories
- over 150 itemized requirements

- excerpt:
- 27. Store license rights and terms for reference, reporting, and control of services
- 27.1 For services including but not limited to ILL, reserves, distance education, course web sites, and course packs:
- 27.1.1 Identify whether a given title may be used for the service and under what conditions
- 27.1.2 Generate reports of all materials that may or may not be used for the service with notes about conditions

## ERMI B: Workflow

- Lifecycle of an e-resource from initial consideration to cessation
- 28 decision points
- 46 action items

## ERMI C: ERD

## ERMI D: Data Element Dictionary

- Almost 350 data elements with definitions

| Data Element Name | Identifier | Definition | Comments |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Embargo Period  | embargoperiod
 | The amount of time by which content is intentionally delayed | Refer to developing standards (e.g., ONIX for Serials) for values   |
| Fair Use Clause Indicator | fairuseclause  | A clause that affirms statutory fair use rights under U.S. copyright law (17 USC Section 107), or that the agreement does not restrict or abrogate the rights of the licensee or its user community under copyright law  | Fair use rights include, but are not limited to, printing, downloading, and copying
Most applicable for U.S. libraries but may be of interest for other countries when recording terms for products licensed by U.S. businesses |
| Format  | format  | The form of presentation of a resource  | Examples of electronic formats include descriptions of text (e.g., ASCII); images (e.g., JPEG); audio (e.g., “basic”)  |

- excerpt:

## ERMI E: Data Structure

- Data elements of Appendix D structured to show logical groupings and relationships

| Interface Entity |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Definition  | Interface entity is part of the master set Electronic Product. It is comprised of many elements identifying or associated with the interface of an electronic resource. An interface is the software platform or website through which a particular electronic resource is made available.  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Elements  | Interface ID, Interface Acquisition, Interface Prevailing Terms, Interface Access Information, Interface Administrative Information, Interface Name, Interface Digital Object Identifier, Interface Other Identifier Source, Interface Other Identifier Number, Interface Provider, Medium, Interface Status, Interface Public Note |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Notes
 | Elements may be derived from other linked entities as appropriate. Interface is one of two subsets of the Electronic Product set; for some bridge entities an id from either its sibling Electronic Resource or from Interface must be present, but both are not always required. FR19 |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Element  | Definition  | Element Type | System Use / Functionality | Values  | Option-ality  | Repeat-ability  | Notes / Examples |
| Interface ID  | The identification number assigned to the interface by the electronic resource management system  | unique ID  | system generated identifier  |  | R  | N  | This should be considered a unique local identifier. Links an Interface record to other data.  |
| Interface Acquisition  | The acquisition which has made the interface available to the collection  | pointer |  | ID from Acquisition entity | RA  | N  |  |
| Interface Prevailing Terms | The business and legal terms under which the interface is licensed and acquired  | pointer
 | FR1, FR2  | ID from the Prevailing Terms entity  | RA  | N  |  |

- excerpt:

## ERMI F: XML Investigation

- Decision to pursue “proof of concept” schemas covering licensing data elements
- DRM technologies and licensing
- Sample ERMI license data use cases
- Schemas for licensing elements, implementing:
- ODRL
- Create Commons RDF
- “Native” ERMI schema

## Vendor Response to ERMI

- We Win!!
- ILS-based products in release or under development
- Serial vendor-based solutions

|  Colorado Alliance Gold Rush |  III ERM |
| --- | --- |
|  Dynix ERM (?) |  SerialsSolutions ERMS |
|  Endeavor Meridian |  SIRSI ERM (?) |
|  ExLibris Verde |  VTLS Verify |

|  EBSCO EJS |  Harrassowitz HERMIS 2.0 |
| --- | --- |

## Standards Development

- ERMI is *not* a “standard”
- Recommended functionality and data fields
- A way (not the only way) to build relationships
- Shibboleth
- ONIX for Serials
- Packages
- Coverage/Holdings
- But what about . . .
- Identifiers?    Licenses?    Interoperability?

## Outstanding Issues

- Consortia
- Usage Statistics
- Standardization
- License Interpretation
- Rights Expression

## Rights Expression for Libraries

**License**

## But Licenses are Rights, Right?

- Licenses define some rights
- Law defines some rights
- Interpretations of licenses and law define some rights
- Licenses include non-rights-related administrative information that libraries want in “actionable” form, e.g.:

|  Completeness of Content |  Uptime Guarantee |
| --- | --- |
|  Confidentiality of Agreement |  Maintenance Window |

## “Actionable?”  What Actions?

- Communicate to users:
- “Licensee shall instruct all Users using the Database or output therefrom to give proper attribution to Licensor for any data extracted from the Database as follows:”
- Communicate to staff:
- “[Licensor] grants Subscriber the right to use certain of the Subscribed Content as source material for interlibrary loans on an experimental, article-by-article basis and under the following conditions....”
- Systematic action and calculation
- “Publisher may terminate this agreement ... in the event of a material breach by Licensee if such breach has not been cured within sixty (60) days of written notice from Publisher....”
- Reporting

## Okay, libraries want License expression ... but what about Rights?

- Absolutely!
- Eager to have a standardized way to capture rights, restrictions, and obligations so that our systems can communicate them to library staff and users.
- Very useful to have a shared communication standard to share license & rights expressions with partners.
- Absolutely Not!
- No machine enforcement!  And why not?
- Machine enforcement requires absolutely explicit, very granular expressions.

## What’s wrong with explicit expressions?

- Licenses define some rights
- Law defines some rights
- Interpretations of licenses and law define some rights
- “[Adjudicating fair use] is not to be simplified with bright-line rules, for the statute, like the doctrine it recognizes, calls for case-by-case analysis.”
- [*Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc*., 510 U.S. 569 (1994)]

## Ambiguity can be desirable

**China Alters Language On Taiwan**
- By Philip P. Pan
- Washington Post Foreign Service
- Friday, May 13, 2005
**BEIJING, May 12 -- Chinese President Hu Jintao proposed new diplomatic language Thursday aimed at ending the decades-old state of hostilities between China and Taiwan [...]**
**	****	****Under the new language, Hu effectively agreed to open talks if Taiwan accepted the principle of "two shores, one China" while acknowledging that the two sides might differ on precisely what that term meant.**

## Permission Values

- Permitted (explicit)
- Permitted (interpreted)
- Prohibited (explicit)
- Prohibited (interpreted)
- Silent (uninterpreted)
- Not Applicable

***via RELs***

- ...does not suffice
- Licenses do not explicitly say everything user can do with a digital object
- Partners include consortia, with whom we need to share information about silence and license interpretations

## Developments in License Expression

- NISO Initiative on DRM
- Community’s “core requirements” document
- Reference model
- EDItEUR ONIX for Licensing Terms
- “wide-ranging ONIX schema for the description of licensing terms and resource usage permissions and policies”
*Publisher License Terms Format* draft released in August 2005
- Plans to develop a joint DLF/EDItEUR/NISO steering group to guide work

## Questions and Comments

- Nathan D.M. Robertson
- nrobertson@law.umaryland.edu