I wanted to share, somewhat belatedly, this call for comments that I think will be of interest to the CNI community.

Clifford Lynch

Director, CNI

Colleagues: You may have seen a press release from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) yesterday about a project engaging with the challenge of aggregating, analyzing, and communicating open access ebook usage information; this is at

How to deal with the fact that data about use of ebooks is spread out across many different platforms is a problem for all of us, but it becomes particularly acute when usage rather than sales is a major measure of "success" (as it is for authors, publishers, and funders of open access ebooks). With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, KU Research has produced a draft white paper about the issue, which also proposes the formation of a "data trust" framework to alleviate it, as is common in other industries. The white paper is at

Building a Trusted Framework for Coordinating OA Monograph Usage Data - Google Docs

This document is now closed for online commenting. If you would still like to comment, please contact Kevin.Hawkins@unt.edu. Building a Trusted Framework for Coordinating OA Monograph Usage Data Statement of authorship 3 Problem statement 5 Introduction 6 Opportunity 6 The monograph ecosystem ...

BISG is inviting you to read this white paper and provide some feedback, either through commenting directly in the Google Doc or completing a short survey after reading it at http://bit.ly/data-trust-survey. Responses will inform a summit of platform providers, funders, standards bodies, publishers, and librarians happening in New York in early December. Expect a final version of the white paper in the first half of 2019, laying the foundations of some next steps.

If these issues resonate with you, please read the draft white paper and help improve it through your comments, and please share with any others you think might be interested in this matter. Kevin

Kevin Hawkins kevin.s.hawkins@ultraslavonic.info/kevin.s.hawkins@ultraslavonic.info