Baltimore, March 10, 2021: The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) today made its new draft Recommended Practice for Content Platform Migrations available for public comment. The result of nearly two years of collaboration between the librarians, publishers, and content platform providers on the Content Platform Migrations Working Group, this Recommended Practice provides a standard process and recommendations to improve communication between all parties involved before, during, and after migration.

Well-planned platform migrations, including good communications with customers, ensure that the content is delivered on the new platform with no broken links, no loss of functionality, no interruption in access, and no loss of customer information. Streamlining the process will result in a smoother overall transition for everyone’s benefit.

“Content platforms, whether developed by publishers themselves, or licensed from third parties, are widely used to provide libraries and their patrons with access to scholarly content,” said Working Group Co-Chair Athena Hoeppner of the University of Central Florida. “Ensuring that migrations between platforms is as smooth as possible benefits everyone, so we are pleased to share our recommendations with the wider community for their feedback and input.”

“We are grateful to all Working Group members for their efforts in developing this Recommended Practice,” added Kim Steinle of Duke University Press. “Unfortunately, a problem-free migration is often the exception rather than the norm but, by implementing our recommendations, platform providers, publishers, and libraries will be able to change that situation for the better.”

“Our thanks to Athena, Kim, and everyone in the Content Migrations Working Group for their hard work and dedication in drafting these recommendations,” said Nettie Lagace, NISO’s Associate Executive Director. “We look forward to receiving feedback from the community, which the Working Group will  evaluate and incorporate, as appropriate, into the final Recommended Practice.”

Everyone involved in, or with an interest in, improving content platform migrations is invited to share their feedback on the Content Platform Migrations Working Group Recommended Practice, which can be found at http://www.niso.org/standards-committees/content-platform-migrations. It is open for comment through April 23, 2021.