Participants Needed to Implement and Provide Feedback on the CORE
Standard That Exchanges Financial Information Between Library Systems

NISO's CORE Working Group announces the publication of Z39.95-200x, Cost
of Resource Exchange (CORE) Protocol as a Draft Standard for Trial Use
(DSFTU). The CORE draft standard defines an XML schema to facilitate the
exchange of financial information related to the acquisition of library
resources between systems, such as an ILS and an ERMS. The document was
approved on March 31, 2009 by the Business Information Topic Committee,
which provides oversight to the CORE Working Group.

The CORE standard is being issued for a one-year trial use period, to
run from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. Following the DFSTU phase
will be an evaluation and correction period before final publication.

The CORE draft standard identifies a compact yet useful structure for
query and delivery of relevant acquisitions data. "Sharing acquisitions
information between systems has always been a difficult problem," said
Ted Koppel, AGent Verso (ILS) Product Manager, Auto-Graphics, Inc. and
co-chair of the CORE Working Group. "The rise of ERM systems made this
problem even more acute. I'm glad that we-through the CORE standard-have
created a mechanism for data sharing, reuse, and delivery."

The DSFTU phase allows the draft standard to be tested and validated by
implementers and the marketplace prior to final publication. The trial
work will also serve as an opportunity for the information community to
provide the CORE Working Group and NISO with feedback on the draft,
including the identification of any errors or omissions that may arise
during the trial. The intent of this period is to discover and
subsequently address such issues, with the goal of creating a more
perfect CORE standard.

Trial participants will be asked to implement the CORE protocol in their
own organization (or with another trial implementer), participate in the
CORE Interest Group list during the trial to share experiences, and
provide feedback on any needed changes to the protocol prior to final
issuance of the standard. The CORE Working Group will be available to
provide guidance and answer questions and will continue to develop
support documents during the trial. All comments will be reviewed
regularly by the Working Group and will be responded to and made public
at the end of the trial use period.

Anyone interested in participating in the trial or who would like
additional information should contact NISO using the Contact Us form
available online at www.niso.org/contact.

Resources

CORE DSFTU Document: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-95/
About the CORE DSFTU Trial Period: http://www.niso.org/standards/draft/
CORE Working Group Home: http://www.niso.org/workrooms/core/
CORE Interest Group Discussion List: http://www.niso.org/lists/coreinfo/
Business Information Topic Committee: http://www.niso.org/topics/businfo/

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