About Knowledgebases

KBs, like library catalogs, keep track of what a library has in their electronic collections and help to connect a library user with the information they seek. Since most institutions spend more on their online resources than print, knowledgebases are crucial to day-to-day e-resource lifecycle management operations and for getting users from the library’s  discovery methods to your content. KBs are driven by quality data supplied from organizations like yours to KB vendors.

The Ex Libris KBs contain information for more than 7,000 content providers, aggregators, publishers and portals, with over 15,000 collections or packages, which in Alma and SFX are known as “targets” and in 360 KB are called "databases". Targets/databases represent a selection (or all) of the titles available from a content provider. Librarians look for targets/databases that match the product(s), or individual titles that they have licensed from you, and select these as part of their collection. Information about the titles in those databases then allows a librarian to track usage, cost and licensing, receive an authoritative MARC record for their catalog, provides the opportunity for web scale discovery, OpenURL linking, and allows a user to search just their library’s collection for the perfect source for their research and link to your platform for seamless access.

Ex Libris KBs contain information about text-based sources such as books, academic journals, newspapers, reports, conference proceedings, magazines, etc., and some support for streaming video content, too. If you have any question about whether your content would be a good fit for the KB, please contact us.

Data & Content Specifics

Ex Libris prefers that data submitted to the KB meet the KBART Recommended Practice guidelines. KBART (Knowledge Bases And Related Tools) is a cross-industry group of content providers, knowledgebase vendors, and librarians who have created best practices for transmitting title list data for use by vendors and librarians.

File Format and Naming

KBART recommends tab-delimited, UTF-8 encoded text (.txt) files for the best compatibility across vendors and ease of use for librarians who may want the information in your files (section 6.4 of the KBART Recommended Practice). Ex Libris can also accept Excel (.xls/.xlsx), CSV, MARC records (for books only), and some types of XML data (depending on schema used and data elements available).

Separate files should be created for each package or collection (target/database) that contains multiple titles that is sold/licensed to libraries, and one file that contains all titles to allow for libraries to select individual titles that they may have access to outside of a target/database.

Each file delivered should always contain the full contents of that target/database, which will completely overwrite the previous content delivered.

File names, if not conforming to KBART’s recommendations (section 6.5), should describe the target/database for which it is intended.  The file name should be stable to allow for automation (date stamps are OK).

Data Elements/Fields

KBART recommends 25 static fields (section 6.6) in a specific order, and can accommodate any other optional, uncontrolled fields following those 25. We highly recommend following the KBART recommendation which says all these fields should be included to avoid any misunderstanding. If this is not possible, or you already have a title list following a different format, here are the most important fields to include:

Delivery Details

Our Process

What you can expect:

1. Content gap is identified by a customer or provider.
2. Customers requesting data for content providers may be referred to the Idea Exchange, where customers vote on content. This helps us gauge interest in the content, prioritize it, and schedule the work to add it.
3. Ex Libris KB and Provider Relations team establish a relationship with the provider, and preferred contact information is exchanged.
4. Provider submits sample data to Ex Libris.
5. Sample is reviewed; feedback given and changes made if necessary.
6. File delivery location and frequency are established.
7. KB team configures the content for compatibility and performs the initial data load.
8. Periodic reviews are made of content to improve the customer experience.
9. Ex Libris and the provider will contact one another to communicate issues that affect customers, and/or Ex Libris’ ability to obtain and load data.

Additional Resources