SERU 0.9 Draft Available for Pilot Use

Thanks to Joy Davidson who passed this announcement on to me.

NISO's Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) Working Group has
made available a new 0.9 draft of SERU on the NISO Web site.

This latest version of the Shared Electronic Resource
Understanding provides a set of statements publishers and
libraries can choose to use for sales of electronic content. SERU
offers publishers and libraries an alternative to the
often-burdensome process of bilateral negotiation of a formal
license agreement by allowing the sale of e-resources without
licenses if both parties feel their perception of risk has been
adequately addressed by current law and developing norms of
behavior within the publisher and library communities. Libraries
and publishers can notify serials vendors of their willingness to
work with SERU allowing vendors to more easily mediate such
subscription sales.

The working group encourages pilot use of the 0.9 draft by
interested libraries and publishers. SERU 0.9 includes
guidelines for implementation and is accompanied by a revised FAQ
to assist users of the statements. NISO is maintaining a list of
libraries and publishers who plan to use SERU for pilot
transactions. To join the registry or to see the list of current
trial participants visit
http://www.niso.org/committees/SERU/registry.html.

The NISO SERU Working Group is grateful for the active commentary
earlier SERU drafts have generated. The current SERU document
reflects a range of suggestions from many constituencies in the
library and publishing communities. The working group continues
to welcome comments on the draft statements. Comments can be sent
to Karla Hahn (karla@arl.org) or Judy Luther
(judy.luther@informedstrategies.com), the working group
co-chairs, or any other member of the working group.

An informational listserv providing announcements of future
developments with the project is available as well. SERU 0.9 and
further information on the SERU Working Group, can be found at
http://www.niso.org/committees/SERU/.

The NISO SERU Working Group was formed in late 2006 following a
development meeting supported by the Association of Research
Libraries (ARL), the Association of Learned and Professional
Society Publishers (ALPSP), the Scholarly Publishing and Academic
Resources Coalition (SPARC), and the Society for Scholarly
Publishing (SSP).