 |
 |
Dear all, Apologies for cross posting! The following message was sent out to the Global Press this morning and I thought it may be of interest to a number of list subscribers. Yours, Damian PRESS RELEASE Beaverton (USA), Lisse (The Netherlands), London (UK), January 20th 2006 Journal Supply Chain Efficiency Improvement Pilot project gets underway The British Library, HighWire Press, Ringgold Inc., Swets Information Services B.V. and a group of HighWire-affiliated publishers announced today the launch of an initiative that will see these esteemed parties joining forces in 2006 to explore the creation, prototype implementation and value of a common institutional identifier that can be used throughout the entire industry, from purchaser to end user. The start of every calendar year is a turbulent time for all parties involved with the journal supply chain, with missing issues, lost access to electronic journals and problems relating to the setting up of initial access. Many of these problems occur because of communication breakdowns somewhere along that chain. Although each company or organization involved has its own way of recognizing customers, users, clients and subscriptions, one of the aims of this project is that, in the creation and utilization of a standard institutional identifier, these problems will be eliminated, mitigated or at the very least diagnosed earlier. As qualified representatives of all stages in the chain, the participants in this pilot project share the belief that integration and standardization are of paramount importance to the successful flow of information. The project will set up real-use case scenarios to discover whether or not the creation of such a standard identifier for institutions will be beneficial to all parties involved and test implementation strategies. The pilot will be limited to the UK customers of all the participants. The British Library will be working with the pilot to look at the implications of providing access to electronic archives. The role of HighWire Press is as a technical advisor per the request of the HighWire-hosted publishers involved in the project. Ringgold have been working with publishers for over 3 years to create a database of institutions and their metadata which will form a key basis of the pilot. Swets' role will be to oversee how a standard identifier will affect the workflow between the publishers and consumers of information. Regular reports and findings discovered throughout the project will be published online, along with comments from the participants involved in the project. All this information will be made publicly available at the following web address: www.JournalSupplyChain.org About the participants in the pilot: About The British Library The British Library is the national Library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk About HighWire Press HighWire Press, a division of the Stanford University Libraries, is a not-for-profit electronic journal developing and hosting service, producing the definitive online versions of high-impact, peer-reviewed journals and other scholarly content. In its 10 years of operation, HighWire has partnered with a community of influential societies, university presses and other scholarly publishers to create a vast database of the some of the finest, fully searchable research, medical and social science literature available on the Internet. Visit HighWire Press at www.highwire.org. About Ringgold Inc. Ringgold provides support for suppliers and publishers, helping them define products and services, fitted to the working environments of potential buyers. It was formed in 2005 from the merger of Information Power Ltd based in Oxford, UK OpenRFP based in Portland, USA and Biblio Tech based in Bristol, UK. Ringgold has been working with academic publishers for over 3 years to create a database of customers with standard metadata including demographics for marketing purposes. This database of 40,000 institutions has been researched by experts around the world and will be used as the basis for the pilot data. About Swets Information Services Swets is the world's leading subscription services company, connecting the supply and demand chain that exists between publishers and institutions, libraries and information centres. The company provides services for customers from academic, government, corporate and medical institutions. Swets has been operating successfully for over 100 years. The company has offices in over 20 countries, servicing clients and publishers from over 160 nations. Those offices manage more than 1.8 million subscriptions, with half of those related to electronic subscriptions, between some 65,000 publishers and over 60,000 clients, including one in three Fortune 500 companies. Swets is the only subscription agent to be ISO 9001:2000 certified on a global basis, which serves as a significant endorsement of its ability to provide clients and publishers with the kind of speedy, reliable and efficient service methods they expect to receive from an intermediary. Media Contacts Ringgold Inc. Don Chvatal President, Ringgold Inc PO Box 368 Beaverton, OR 97075-0368 USA T +1 (503) 977 1313 F +1 (503) 690-6642 E [log in to unmask] www.ringgold.com Swets Information Services Corporate Headquarters Damian Leslie Heereweg 347 B 2161 CA Lisse The Netherlands T +31 (0) 252 435 189 F +31 (0) 252 415 888 E [log in to unmask] www.swets.com