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OpenURL & KBART
KBART is a NISO recommended practice for the data that flows from content providers into link resolver knowledge bases — and so into the accuracy of OpenURL resolution.
KBART — Knowledge Bases And Related Tools — is a NISO recommended practice (NISO RP-9) describing how content providers should supply title-list data to link resolver knowledge bases. While KBART itself is not OpenURL, the two are tightly coupled: the accuracy with which a resolver can answer an OpenURL request depends directly on the quality of the data in its knowledge base, and KBART is the standard format for that data.
What KBART standardises
KBART specifies a tab-separated file format and a set of recommended fields for title-by-title holdings data — for example, a journal title list from an aggregator describing which journal articles, in which date ranges, are available to a subscribing institution. The file is intended to be exchanged from content provider to library or to a shared knowledge-base operator.
Fields covered include journal title, ISSN/eISSN, coverage dates, embargo, URL of the title at the provider, and various publication metadata. Many publishers and aggregators publish KBART files for their packages, and NISO maintains a registry of KBART-endorsed (now "compliant") providers.
How KBART affects OpenURL quality
A resolver answers an OpenURL by matching the Referent against its knowledge base. If the knowledge base is wrong — wrong coverage dates, wrong ISSN, wrong URL — the resolution is wrong too. KBART improves data quality by standardising:
- The exact fields a knowledge base should expect from a content provider.
- The character encoding and file format, removing a class of import errors.
- The interpretation of coverage dates and embargo windows.
KBART addresses the knowledge-base side of link quality. The OpenURL side, meaning how complete the metadata in incoming OpenURLs is, was studied by NISO's IOTA working group. See Related Work.
Status
KBART is a NISO Recommended Practice, designation RP-9, first published in 2010. Phase II appeared as NISO RP-9-2014. The current version is NISO RP-9-2026 (Phase III), published on 26 August 2026. It adds support for new content types such as multimedia, file-level recommendations for KBART Automation, handling of translated and transliterated titles, a reworked embargo section, a file manifest, and a revised compliance process. A related recommended practice, KBART Automation (NISO RP-26-2019), covers automated exchange of institution-specific holdings. Adherence is voluntary.