The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has announced the publication of a revision to the Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) Recommended Practice (NISO RP-9-2014). The original recommended practice, issued in 2010, provided all parties in the information supply chain with straightforward guidance about metadata formatting - focused mainly on journal resources - to ensure the exchange of accurate metadata between content providers and knowledge base developers.
Building on the initial recommendations, the revision includes the more granular, complex issues that cause problems in metadata supply, including consortia-specific metadata and metadata transfer for open access publications, e-books, and conference proceedings.
Since the first Recommended Practice was issued, over 75 publishers and content providers have endorsed KBART and demonstrated their commitment to good quality metadata provision. With implementation of the KBART recommendations, users can be assured that the providers' metadata is trusted and has the required level of granularity without the burdensome task of title-by-title checking. All of the existing endorsements will go through an updating procedure to ensure conformance with the revised Recommended Practice.
The KBART Recommended Practice and the KBART Information Hub with its supporting materials are available on the NISO website at www.niso.org/workrooms/kbart.
