Theory Into Practice: How Is KB+ Being Used? - Damyanti Patel, Sonia Wilson & Phil Hall

Knowledge Base+ (KB+) is a shared service from Jisc to help institutions manage their e-resources more efficiently. This session consisted of a panel of speakers from a range of stakeholders across the supply chain talking about their experience of KB+.

Damyanti Patel (Data Manager KB+)

KB+ started back in 2011. Now freely available and is a core Jisc offering. Numerous collections from publishers have been added to KB+. Collaboration is key. There have been several releases. Release 4.1 is coming out in Easter. Another is due in summer time. They want to work with all stakeholders involved. It is a user-focused service, collaborating with libraries. Quick fixes, enhancements, improvements are picking through a voting system.

KB+ supports university workflows. Knowledge Base and Related Tools (KBART) list is downloadable on the KB+ website. Publisher information (lots of packages), e.g. ISSN, is also available. It is possible to:

• Set up a subscription and add additional information, e.g. core, print, e-only, print and e, renewals, link resolver exports
• Create, manage and store licences. Add document information.
• Check data of the title lists, e.g. NESLi. 
• Add Jisc subscription data to your account. 
• Get support and guidance. 
• Up-date titles lists. 
• Share information from publishers.
• Get information on site visits. 
• Get some guides on how to use KB+ and workflow ideas.
• Can compare two title lists.

Sonia Wilson (University or Stirling)

Their involvement with KB+ started back in 2010 - taking part in a case study. They found a lot of duplication of work and so thought that KB+ would be a great resource to get involved in. There was a discussion on how they could use KB+. Publishers couldn't say for definite what they had given access to in the packages. KB+ is part of the solution to manage the data. They wanted to reduce time and was enthused by the possibilities of KB+ - the ability to integrate with value-added tools and services; access accurate data for UK; reduce cost of data management, creation and exchange; start to build entitlements lists; collaboration; managing you own data. The integration of services starting now to be seen.

E-resources team - Amend data sets, adding information. Dashboard in KB+ updates the institution if any changes or action is needed, e.g. if a journal is no longer in a package. Links to discussion board - automatic updates to additions in the discussion. Very valuable and useful.

Librarians - Internal marketing to librarians. Read-only access. Can check SHEDL deals,  compare packages. Hope this will save time of e-resources team and librarians.

SHEDL Consortium - Focus on making sure the SHEDL information is up-to-date. The SHEDL administrator has done some work on this.

Where to go from here?

• User interface. Vast improvement. Still a bit clunky to navigate.
• Addition of JUSP stats (as well as ecat).
• Ability to export data - link to link resolvers. Want the systems to talk to one another.
• Individual subscriptions they want to add and the uploading of relevant documentation. (There is an area for this.)
• Creation of focus groups.

There is talk about being able to share journal lists. It is very time-intensive to add the data. Need to manage the population of data as things change. At the University of Stirling there has been some stopping and starting, which has not been a good thing as data changes rapidly and processes need to be re-familiarised. Would like Onyx comparison extended to other comparisons. e.g. access rights. User guides a bit difficult to follow at first. Need financial data - that would make it a more powerful service.

Phil Hall (ProQuest)

Some work has been done on how ProQuest Workflow Solutions can work with KB+. Looking at global and local knowledge bases. How to bring all these together in one platform?
Take a look at the Hike Project at the University of Huddersfield.

There are two groups of data in the ProQuest system-

• Collections data
• Licence data, .e.g terms of use.

They are managed separately and then brought together. Want good quality data. Respecting KBART standard and data quality. Matched with their normalisation.
Proquest has worked with KB+ for quite a few years.  Want to minimise data transfer in libraries. KB+ data is brought through to the Intota platform (not quite launched yet) and drives all the tools the library uses. A-Z list from KB+ is available, as well as license data e.g. from NESLi2. There are 180-190 different licences.
How are the collection and license data brought together? Can connect them. Get the bib data and click on the right license to be put in your ERM. Any changes to automatically change in future.
'Go KB' - is more US-based. They want to work with KB+ data. Have been collaborating with 'Go KB'. Need national and international collaboration.

Variety of ways to work with licences, e.g. if the license is a unique one. KB+ is looking into this. KB+ does feedback errors to the publishers, but KB+ doesn't follow this up.