Plan M is a very wide-ranging discussion that has been going on throughout the second half of 2019 involving many different stakeholders across the library community. The ‘M’ stands for ‘metadata’.
In a nutshell, the way that metadata for academic and specialist libraries is created, sold, licensed, shared and re-used in the UK needs a re-think. Plan M is an initiative that is being facilitated by Jisc but is really a conversation between libraries, suppliers and intermediary organisations to streamline the metadata marketplace in the UK so that it is more coherent, transparent, robust and sustainable.
The catalyst for this conversation has been a focus on aggregating and sharing library data at a new ambitious scale via the National Bibliographic Knowledgebase (NBK) and through Jisc Library Hub services.
Three new resources are available:
A concise description of Plan M objectives and next steps as of December 2019
- A slide deck in pdf format (7 slides) – Plan-M-summary-Dec-2019
A fuller description of Plan M providing more context and definition
- pdf format document (4 pages) – Plan M – Definition and Direction
A synthesis of discussions relating to Plan M during the period May – October 2019
- pdf format document (7 pages) – Plan M – Review of Stakeholder Input Final
We will be in touch with all stakeholders in the New Year to take forward this plan and look forward to working with everybody. Needless to say, if anyone has comments or queries about Plan M then drop us a line at nbk@jisc.ac.uk
Best wishes and a merry Xmas
The NBK Team
