For the NBK Programme to fulfil its stated aim of providing a comprehensive view of the UK national collection and for libraries and researchers to get the most value out of using it, the database must be (as far as possible) an accurate and up-to-date reflection of all the holdings of university, national and specialist libraries in the UK. Many of these libraries rely extensively on commercial data suppliers to provide timely, high-quality metadata that they do not have the time or resources to create themselves. MARC format records are labour-intensive to create and have a commercial value that may be undermined if Jisc was to make them freely available via the Library Hub Cataloguing service
We have, therefore, been in discussion with a number of suppliers about the use of commercially-sourced bibliographic data in Jisc’s Library Hub services and are pleased to announce that we have come to an initial agreement with Bibliographic Data Services Ltd (BDS) about the terms of use of their data.
BDS have released the following statement:
“In recognition of the investment undertaken by Jisc to support academic libraries via the National Knowledge Base (NBK) programme, BDS has agreed to support this initiative by allowing data created at BDS, and already held in member libraries’ catalogues to be made available to the NBK user community for resource discovery purposes in a non-MARC format.
BDS data will not be held in the (NBK) Library Hub Cataloguing module and will not be shared with WorldCat, but is available via direct subscription to BDS services, or through arrangements in place with book suppliers.”
We are in discussion with other suppliers and Dawson Books and Askews & Holts Library Services have also indicated that they are content to take the same position as BDS on the supply of their data into the Jisc Library Hub Discover platform.
Our intention is to try and get clear confirmation from all relevant data suppliers to UK libraries and then to present the agreements reached and the methods of identifying provenance as clearly and concisely as possible.
Whilst these initial agreements represent good progress, Jisc and data suppliers are still looking to maximise prospects for introducing efficiencies into the library data marketplace and are continuing discussions to see if there is a more transformative model that can be agreed that is protective of commercial interests whilst at the same time enhances data provision for the NBK library community.
Watch this space!
