Washington, DC
BioOne (www.bioone.org) is delighted to announce its
participation in the innovative SERU (Shared Electronic Resource
Understanding) pilot program, sponsored by NISO
(http://www.niso.org/committees/SERU/). BioOne joins an
inaugural group of publishers, libraries, and consortia that have
agreed to use SERU on a trial basis.
SERU seeks to address the problematic status of many
publisher-library subscription transactions, currently dominated
by extensive negotiated licenses. These formal licenses increase
the cost of sales for both parties, delay researchers' access to
content, and perpetuate the often-adversarial nature of the
subscription economy.
As such, many publishers and libraries have called for a new,
best practices approach that streamlines and simplifies the
e-resource acquisition process, while still protecting copyright.
SERU has answered this call with a Recommended Practice document
for Trial Use that outlines a "framework of shared understanding
and good faith." The Statements of Common Understanding for
Subscribing to Electronic Resources include definitions of
acceptable and inappropriate use, confidentiality and privacy,
service and performance expectations, and archiving and perpetual
access standards.
"The SERU license simplifies the subscription transaction and
reduces costs for both publishers and libraries, and, in doing
so, fits perfectly into BioOne's mission and market niche. We're
delighted to be a part of such an important program," said BioOne
Executive Director, Susan Skomal.
Going forward, libraries and consortia in North America wishing
to subscribe to BioOne will be given the option to forego a
traditional licensing agreement and operate under SERU
Recommended Practices. BioOne's sales and marketing partner in
North America, Amigos Library Services (www.amigos.org) will
continue to manage these transactions. Interested libraries
should contact Carrie Esch at cesch@amigos.org with any
questions.
###
About BioOne
Established in 2000, BioOne (www.bioone.org) is the product of
innovative collaboration between scientific societies, libraries,
academe, and the private sector, who seek a sustainable,
mission-driven alternative to commercial publishing. BioOne
brings to the Web a uniquely valuable aggregation of the full-texts of high-impact
bioscience research journals. Most of BioOne's titles are
published by small societies and non-commercial publishers.
BioOne provides integrated, cost-effective access to a thoroughly
linked information resource of interrelated journals focused on
the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences.
About NISO
Founded in 1939 and incorporated in 1983, NISO, the National
Information Standards Organization, is a non-profit association
accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
NISO identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical
standards to manage information in the changing and ever-more
digital environment.
NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the
full range of information-related needs, including retrieval,
re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. The leaders of
over 70 organizations in the fields of publishing, libraries, IT
and media serve as its voting members, while hundreds of experts
and practitioners serve on NISO committees and as officers of the
association.
About Amigos Library Services
A not-for-profit, membership-based organization, Amigos Library
Services (www.amigos.org) is one of the largest library service
networks in the nation, consisting of over 750 libraries and
cultural institutions located primarily in the southwestern
United States. Members utilize a comprehensive array of
technology-based services through Amigos. Amigos is also a
provider of marketing and sales support for scholarly content
publishers and aggregators throughout the United States and
Canada.