International collaboration to help transform way libraries manage their resources

Kuali OLE, one of the largest academic library software collaborations in the United States, and JISC, the UK's expert on digital technologies for education and research, announce a collaboration that will make data about e-resources-such as publication and licensing information-more easily available.

Together, Kuali OLE and JISC will develop an international open data repository that will give academic libraries a broader view of subscribed resources.

The effort, known as the Global Open Knowledgebase (GOKb) project, is funded in part by a $499,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. North Carolina State University will serve as lead institution for the project.
GOKb will be an open, community-based, international data repository that will provide libraries with publication information about electronic resources. This information will support libraries in providing efficient and effective services to their users and ensure that critical electronic collections are available to their students and researchers.

"This Kuali OLE - JISC partnership adds momentum to our efforts to create an open library system and offers benefits to all participants. We are pleased at the way our projects have come together toward a common goal, and look forward to sharing the results widely," said Deborah Jakubs, university librarian and vice provost for library affairs at Duke University and co-chair of the Kuali OLE board.

Robert H. McDonald, Executive Director of Kuali OLE, says, "With the start-up of the GOKb Project, Kuali OLE as an organization is showcasing the strengths and opportunities that come from deep collaborative engagements with our peer academic libraries both in the US and in the UK. The role for libraries in collaboration around electronic content can't be dismissed. Libraries need better supply-chain options for our electronic content management workflows and the GOKb Project will provide solutions."

"Nowhere are the advantages and possibilities of data better understood and more keenly felt than in academic libraries," says Rachel Bruce, JISC Innovation Director. "Data underpins the services and systems that libraries provide to their students and researchers."

The GOKb cloud service will provide data for "subscribed resources" from a higher education perspective. It will include data such as publication information, related organizations, and model licences, and will be accessible across all US and UK academic libraries.

Many of the concerns libraries have in the management of electronic resources are the same across the world. Indeed, there are a number of projects, such as the Kuali OLE (Open library Environment) in the U.S. and the Knowledge Base+ service in the UK, that are exploring community-based solutions.
Kuali OLE is a community of nine research libraries working together to build the first open-source system designed by and for academic and research libraries for managing and delivering intellectual information.

Among JISC's objectives are to provide cost-effective shared national services and resources and to help institutions improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business systems.