NISO will be offering a webinar on September 10, 2008 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (eastern time) on ONIX for Publications Licenses (ONIX-PL).

ONIX for Publications Licenses is a family of standard XML messaging protocols for exchanging licensing information that builds on the work of the Digital Libraries Federation Electronic Resource Management Initiative (ERMI) and NISO's License Expression Working Group (LEWG).

NISO's License Expression Working Group (LEWG), begun in 2005, initially focused on understanding the differences and mapping the data elements between the ERMI and the ONIX approaches to licensing information. Since then, much progress has been made and these two areas have become more clearly and distinctly defined. The ONIX-PL standard, developed to meet the needs of librarians and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic, is now nearing its pilot phase and we are poised to begin awareness raising campaigns. As a result, in mid-2008 NISO restructured the LEWG, replacing it with a new Working Group to focus specifically on development of the ONIX license messaging specification, and a second, short-term sub-committee of the Business Information Topic Committee that is tasked with conducting a survey of the current and emerging place of "ERMI", thus defined within the broader ERM landscape, to better determine how vendors are implementing the ERMI data dictionary and related documents and how libraries are making use of these systems and services.

Alicia Wise will be assuming the role of Chair for the ONIX-PL Working Group, while Ivy Anderson and Tim Jewell are spearheading the creation and direction of the subcommittee that will be surveying re ERMI and the broader ERM landscape.

This webinar will discuss the progress that has been made with the ONIX-PL standard, new implementations of the standard, and what you need to know about how this might benefit and impact your organization.

This webinar is for librarians, publishers, and content providers who are interested in how to express licenses in a machine-readable format, load them into electronic resource management systems, link them to digital resources, and communicate key usage terms to users.

* Alicia Wise, Chief Executive, Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) and Chair, NISO ONIX-PL Working Group

* Second Speaker to be named shortly – check the event website.

Please visit the event website (http://www.niso.org/news/events/2008/webinars/onixpl/) for more information and to register. ALCTS members may register at the NISO member rate.

This is the third webinar in the series on Demystifying Standards. The slides and Q&A from the introductory webinar are available online (http://www.niso.org/news/events/2008/webinars/alcts08/) for those who wish to review them. The second webinar, OpenURL: Link Resolution That Users Will Love (http://www.niso.org/news/events/2008/webinars/openurl/), will be held August 21, 2008 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (eastern time); registration is open until noon on August 21.