When librarians and their users locate errors in knowledge base data (for example,
incorrect coverage dates for a journal in a full text aggregation), we encourage them to
report these errors to the knowledge base developer, who is expected to investigate the
error and update the global knowledge base. The investigation time could take hours or
days, depending on the level of cooperation of the original content provider. (Note that
knowledge base developers do not have access to all electronic resources, and may be
unable to confirm the error or determine the correct information if they do not have
support from the content provider. In addition, depending on the link resolver vendor’s
distribution model, it may take some time before the customer’s knowledge base reflects
the change.)
The NISO/UKSG KBART Working Group recommends that knowledge base developers
actively seek solutions that will allow corrections to the global knowledge base to appear
locally in a much more timely manner, and thus eliminate the need for librarians to
customize their collections to overcome shortcomings in the global knowledge base.
In a similar vein, we recommend the creation of a definition of what constitutes sufficient
evidence to describe corrected metadata.
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