2017 Charleston Library Conference

Today KBART is one of the industry’s most used formats for data transfer. Originally created for the transfer of data from content providers to knowledge base vendors, KBART was quickly extended to be used to update knowledge bases with library holdings data as well. In response to requests from across the discovery industry, NISO has recently created a new working group to produce recommendations to enable the automation of such updates and to build a seamless connection between the library’s local knowledge base and the information providers’ access/entitlement systems.

The goal for this automated update service is to download institutional holdings files via an API from the information provider’s website at regular intervals, transfer them to the knowledge base platform the institution is using – such as institution's link resolver – and update the knowledge base without manual intervention.

In this session, members of the two NISO KBART groups – the KBART standing committee, tasked with the maintenance of the KBART format, endorsement, and market education, and the KBART Automation Group, tasked with creating recommendations for a standardized automated transfer process – will discuss their work. This will include the results of a recent survey about the adoption of KBART II and the details, status, and practical application of the automation process. We hope for a lively discussion on KBART, its applications, and further opportunities for the future.