EDItEUR News
Serials invoicing with EDItEUROn September 24, 1997, Kansas State University Library became the first university library in the world to successfully load EDI serials invoicing using UN/EDIFACT. EDIFACT for serials has been long awaited by the library automation industry and a joint development initiative between Harrassowitz and Endeavor Information Systems Inc., has made it reality. Staff members from both companies have worked closely with EDItEUR, the Pan-European Book Sector EDI Group. This organization is responsible for the EDItEUR EDI Manual, which provides a complete and self-contained set of documentation for the subset of the EDIFACT protocol which EDItEUR has approved for the various library business transactions. The resulting clarification and adjustments to the EDItEUR implementation guidelines will facilitate easier implementation of EDIFACT transactions in the future, benefiting all libraries, agents, and library system vendors. Mike Somers, Chair of the Technical Services Department at Kansas State University stated, "I am not sure everyone using this feature will appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into its development- they will only consider the benefits and the improved efficiency to their work flows." Work is ongoing in this cooperative effort. Over the course of the next several months, Harrassowitz and Endeavor will implement UN/EDIFACT electronic data interchange for all business transactions for both monographs and serials. All libraries using Endeavor's Voyager system will receive EDI capabilities as a part of their system maintenance. Because this enhancement is based on international standards for EDI transactions, libraries using the Voyager system will be able to communicate with Harrassowitz and all other agents who support UN/EDIFACT. Jane Burke, Endeavor's President and CEO, is enthusiastic about EDI in Voyager. "Libraries' work flows are changing," Burke states, "efficiency in processing is no longer an option. It is a necessity."
Wider role for EDItEURBoth the activities and the membership of EDItEUR continue to grow as the organisation, set up and sponsored by the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), the European Booksellers Federation (EBF) and the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA), becomes increasingly international and begins to address the wider issues of electronic commerce. Although EDI will remain at the core of EDItEUR's activities, items currently on the agenda include the electronic transmission of bibliographic and other product information, standard numbering for electronic products (digital identifiers), electronic rights trading and, as an affiliate member of the EU IMPRIMATUR project, electronic copyright management. Indeed, wherever international standards for electronic commerce in our industry are being discussed, EDItEUR aims to represent its members and, through its WWW site and meetings, provide briefings and elicit feedback. The truly international nature if EDItEUR is evident in its close collaboration with the US Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee (BISAC), the Serials Industry Systems Advisory Committee (SISAC), the International Committee for EDI in Serials (ICEDIS), the International ISBN Advisory Panel, the International Publishers Association (IPA) and EAN International. EDItEUR's Manager, Brian Green, was recently elected as the first non-American board member of the US National Information Standards Organisation (NISO), developer of the Z39 series of information standards. This should provide a further opportunity for international collaboration on information standards and is recognition that, in today's global market, the previous long-winded mechanisms of creating national standards before bringing them forward for international debate, is becoming outmoded. Continuing to IMPRESSAs reported in the previous newsletter, the Library Action Programme of the European Union is generously supporting EDItEUR's work in a programme called IMPRESS (Implementation, Maintenance and Promotion of the EDItEUR Standards Set). In addition to promotional activities in specific Nordic countries, the programme is funding the essential work of maintaining the messages, drafting implementation guides and promoting of the benefits of EDI for a two year period.The message development, maintenance and implementation work is described below and, as you will see, has been substantial over the last twelve months. The IMPRESS programme has also made possible the EDItEUR World Wide Web Site (http:/www.editeur.org), the EDI Implementation Seminar in Florence and book sector seminars in Gothenburg and Copenhagen. The project enables EDItEUR to run help desk for members and others with EDI queries and any member seeking advice should contact the EDItEUR secretariat via phone, fax, email or the WWW site.
EDI message developmentThis has inevitably made the task a larger one than was originally anticipated, but it also means that the results will have a longer life. The Manual revision is still expected to be completed in October 1997, though the mechanics of publication may take a little longer.Detailed work has confirmed the initial view that the changes from D.93A are minimal for those who have already implemented the earlier version. Implementation guidelinesIn parallel with the revision of the EDItEUR Manual, implementation guidelines for library book supply have been rewritten and greatly extended, and will also become available in October. Draft guidelines for trade book supply were published 'for review' last year and will be 'published for use' this autumn.Draft implementation guidelines for new subscription orders and order responses for serials were `published for review' in April. The guidelines for journal despatches and claims have been extensively reviewed, with important input from SISAC and ICEDIS, and are about to be confirmed as `published for use'. The guidelines for subscription renewals are still under review. All of these are available for downloading in Adobe PDF format from this web site.
Florence seminarWhat better way to spend a sunny May day in Florence than at the EDItEUR EDI Implementation Seminar? With characteristic devotion to duty, over forty EDItEUR members spent a full day at the seminar, organised in collaboration with EDILIBRO and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and hosted in the National Library's grand and ornate Sala Dante.Participants were briefed on the EDI messages and their business uses, heard case studies from users of the messages, presentations and requests for collaboration from other related EU projects EFILA and BIBLINK and saw a demonstration of simple EDI on the Internet. There were reports from the national book sector EDI groups implementing EDIFACT under the EDItEUR umbrella and discussions on how best to build book trade EDI communities and expand the EDI user base. Colleagues from OCLC outlined their PROMTCAT service, for which they are proposing to adopt the EDItEUR QUOTES message as the format for communication of bibliographic and trading information from international library booksellers. Yet another example of EDItEUR's international scope.
Identifiers in the digital ageDealing with books and serials without the benefit of ISBNs and ISSNs is almost unthinkable today. Now the industry needs a new generation Internet-compatible identifier for digital products, to enable both trading and copyright management.The Internet's own identifier, the Uniform Resource Location (URL), does not provide the solution as it identifies an Internet 'page' rather than its content, and any Internet user will be aware how often they get an error message telling them that that URL is no longer available. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system, being developed by the Association of American Publishers (AAP) in collaboration with the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), aims to provide a persistent way of identifying and linking to electronic documents and their constituent parts. The system is being demonstrated at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 15 October. At its core is the 'handle' system developed by the CNRI which uses a directory to link the DOI, a two part identifier whose first part indicates numbering agency and publisher, to the URL containing the object in question. This directory will be constantly updated to minimise routing errors. Although early demonstrations have concentrated on use of the DOI to connect the user directly to a document on the Internet, the DOI clearly has much wider potential. Indeed, it was originally proposed as a copyright management system, returning a standard response screen of bibliographic and copyright information. The International Publishers Association and the International STM Publishers Group have formed a joint Information Identifier Committee to monitor development of the DOI with a view to its adoption as an international trade standard. Brian Green, EDItEUR's manager, is on that committee and arguing strongly for an open, low-price numbering system to be operated by the ISBN agencies. EDItEUR will also be contributing to work on the underlying bibliographic and copyright metadata which the system requires. Further information on the DOI can be found on the DOI web site. A joint BIC / EDItEUR background paper on identifiers is available on the EDItEUR or BIC sites.
Looking EastEDItEUR is currently negotiating a contract with the European Union's Library Action Programme to extend its EDI activities to Eastern and Central European Libraries. The project, to be called EXCEL (EDI Extension to Eastern and Central European Libraries), will be in two phases. The first phase will be a feasibility study to examine whether libraries and the book trade in Poland, Hungary and Estonia would benefit from the introduction of EDI. The study, which will be carried out by an independent consultant with experience in these countries, will look at the technical infrastructure as well as business issues. Assuming a positive report, phase two of the project will pilot EDI between booksellers and Eastern and Central European libraries.EDItEUR's partners in the project include the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the library of The British Council in Poland, John Smith & Sons, Otto Harrassowitz and AG Seelig. Further partners will be identified as part of the phase one feasibility study.
Wonderful, wonderful...EDItEUR had a busy but rewarding couple of days in Copenhagen in September organising both a trade seminar and a library workshop.The trade seminar, EDI and the Book Trade, co-organised with the Danish Booksellers Association and the Danish Library Centre as part of the IMPRESS project, was chaired by EDItEUR Chairman Anker Hedegaard who, together with Poul Henrick Jorgensen of the Danish Library Centre provided the Danish language input while Albert Simmonds, David Martin and Brian Green kept to English, detailing the need for EDI and bibliographic standards and the work of EDItEUR in developing them. One of the main outcomes of the meeting was the decision by the forty participants to form a Danish book sector EDI group under the EDItEUR umbrella.
On the following day, EDItEUR had been invited to organise a library workshop, EDI and Beyond, as a session of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) annual conference. The fully subscribed workshop covered EDI, digital identifiers and convergence of Z39.50 item order and Inter Library Loan protocols with EDItEUR's EDI order message. A lively question and answer session and subsequent follow up proved the value of the session.
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