The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the
publication of Making Good on the Promise of ERM: A Standards and Best
Practices Discussion Paper. This publication is the outcome of the NISO
Electronic Resource Management (ERM) Data Standards and Best Practices
Project, a successor to the Digital Library Federation's Electronic
Resources Management Initiative (ERMI). The project's primary goals were to
perform a "gap analysis" of standards and best practices and make
recommendations on the future of the ERMI Data Dictionary.

"Our standards review and findings focused on five categories: link
resolvers and knowledge bases; the work, manifestations, and access points;
cost and usage-related data; license terms; and data exchange using
institutional identifiers," states Tim Jewell, Director, Information
Resources and Scholarly Communications, University of Washington, and Chair
of the ERM Data Standards and Best Practices Review Steering Committee. "We
did a more extensive review of fourteen of the most relevant standards and
mapped the data elements for each to the elements defined in the ERMI
report. We also looked at how ERM systems could improve their workflow
support-a shortcoming in most existing systems-and we include a detailed
workflow best practices bibliography and a list of illustrative workflow
diagrams."

"Our final analysis showed that there is value to updating and maintaining a
data dictionary that encompasses ERM functions and evolves with technologies
and business models," maintains Ivy Anderson, Director of Collections,
California Digital Library and member of the ERM Data Standards and Best
Practices Review Steering Committee. "However, for practical considerations,
we did not recommend that NISO pursue such a project at this time. Instead
we identified a number of narrower initiatives targeting specific ERM
functional needs and strategies aimed at furthering interoperability."

"The ERM Steering Committee has produced a valuable analysis and evaluation
of the current state of standards and best practices that can be applied to
ERM systems," concludes Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "They've
also identified a number of worthwhile initiatives for NISO to consider that
would improve the use and interoperability of ERM."

Making Good on the Promise of ERM is available for free download from the
NISO website at: www.niso.org/publications/white_papers/.
About the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)

Cynthia Hodgson
Technical Editor / Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
hodgsonca@verizon.net
301-654-2512