NISO announces the publication of a new edition of the recommended practice
"SERU: A Shared Electronic Resource Understanding" (NISO RP-7-2012). The
SERU Recommended Practice offers a mechanism that can be used as an
alternative to a license agreement by expressing commonly shared
understandings between content providers and libraries. These understandings
include such things as the definition of authorized users, expectations for
privacy and confidentiality, and online performance and service provisions.
The 2012 updated version of SERU recognizes both the importance of making
SERU more flexible for those who want to expand its use beyond e-journals,
while acknowledging the fact that consensus for other types of e-resource
transactions are not as well-established as they are for e-journals.

"The 2008 version of SERU was eagerly adopted by a number of libraries and
publishers to streamline the acquisition of e-journals," states Selden
Lamoureux, E-Resources Librarian with SDLinforms and Co-chair of the NISO
SERU Standing Committee. "Since then, with the many emerging models for
acquiring e-books, both libraries and e-book providers have requested that
other types of electronic resources be incorporated into the SERU framework.
This new version uses language that can be applied to a wide variety of
e-resources while retaining the same shared understandings that made the
previous version so useful."

"SERU offers publishers and libraries the opportunity to save both the time
and the costs associated with a negotiated and signed license agreement by
agreeing to operate within a framework of shared understanding and good
faith," explains Judy Luther, President of Informed Strategies and Co-chair
of the NISO SERU Standing Committee. "SERU reflects some well-established
and widely accepted common expectations concerning e-resources acquisitions.
In those instances where there is as yet no standard expectation, a shared
understanding may still be achieved if expectations are clearly articulated
in the purchase order that accompanies SERU."

"Widespread adoption of the SERU model for electronic resource transactions
offers substantial benefits to both publishers and libraries by removing the
overhead of license negotiation," asserts Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive
Director. "The SERU Registry of those interested in using the SERU approach
already contains over 70 publishers and content providers and185 libraries
and consortia. The expansion of the recommendations to address additional
types of e-resources should interest more organizations in joining the SERU
registry."

The SERU Recommended Practice, the SERU Registry, and additional helpful
resources are available from the SERU workroom webpage on the NISO website:
www.niso.org/workrooms/seru/

Cynthia Hodgson
Technical Editor / Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
chodgson@niso.org
301-654-2512

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