An Overview of the DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative

The DLF Electronic Resource Management Initiative (external link) grew out of the NISO/DLF Workshop on Standards for Electronic Resource Management held in May, 2002, and its primary goal is to foster the rapid development of systems and tools for managing electronic resources. Electronic Resource Management (ERM) is seen as encompassing a wide range of functions throughout the electronic resource life cycle, including but not limited to ordering, acquisition, maintenance and renewal processes, the generation and maintenance of discovery tools such as e-resource web pages, and recording and presentation of license information such as authorized users and permitted uses.

More specific goals of the Initiative are to describe functional requirements and architectures, establish lists of data elements and definitions, and make available XML Schemas or DTDs for testing. Identification and promotion of appropriate best practices, and standards for data interchange has been an ongoing focus. In line with these goals, a number of specific, mutually-supportive "deliverables" were proposed and are nearing completion. A "Problem Definition/Road Map" will describe the need for and scope of ERM systems. Near-final drafts of several other deliverables are now available at http://www.library.cornell.edu/cts/elicensestudy/home.html (external link): a detailed Workflow Diagram; a Functional Requirements statement; an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) showing the relationships among categories or groupings of data; a Data Dictionary with over 300 element names and definitions, and a "Data Structure" document that ties the ERD, Data Dictionary, and Functional Requirements together.

Rather than attempting to develop original and separate standards for ERM, the Initiative aims to identify key functional areas and provide a comprehensive view or structure for assembling the right kinds of data in the right ways. The Initiative's focus on the importance of data interchange has led to ongoing efforts to understand, track, and take account of such related emerging standards work as Project COUNTER, digital rights management and rights expression languages like ODRL, and ONIX for Serials. (A member of the Initiative's steering group serves on the NISO/EDItEUR Joint Working Party for the Exchange of Serials Subscription Information, and recent steering group discussions have touched on the importance of rich descriptive and holdings information and e-resource identifiers for ERM.)

The Initiative's concluding effort is an investigation of XML possibilities. One important motivation for developing an overall XML schema for ERM is the likelihood that data
will ultimately need to migrate to future systems. However, more narrow use cases that focus on particular data exchange scenarios are being developed. Completion of this part of the project is planned for early spring.

Tim Jewell
DLF ERMI Project Director