SIST ISO 20775:2009

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 20775
First edition
2009-01-15

Information and documentation —
Schema for holdings information
Information et documentation — Schéma pour information sur les fonds
de bibliothèque




Reference number
ISO 20775:2009(E)
©
ISO 2009

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ISO 20775:2009(E)
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
Contents Page
Foreword. iv
Introduction . v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 1
3.1 Terms and definitions. 1
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 2
4 Detailed requirements . 3
4.1 Discovery to delivery. 3
4.2 Respond to holdings usage queries. 5
5 Schema outline . 6
5.1 General observations . 6
5.2 Resource. 6
5.3 Holding. 6
6 Abstract schema. 18
7 XML schema . 42
Annex A (informative) Elaboration of terms and definitions . 43
Bibliography . 46

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ISO 20775:2009(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies
(ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been
established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and
non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.
International Standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
The main task of technical committees is to prepare International Standards. Draft International Standards
adopted by the technical committees are circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member bodies casting a vote.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent
rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
ISO 20775 was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 46, Information and documentation, Subcommittee
SC 4, Technical interoperability.

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ISO 20775:2009(E)
Introduction
This schema for holdings information is designed to meet the requirements for delivering information about
holdings of resources in repositories, libraries and related institutions in response to direct queries. This
schema may also be applicable to the holdings of cultural institutions, such as museum objects. The
information contained in this schema includes scope of holdings, availability, availability policy and conditions,
and access rights. Reporting capability for historical usage information is a secondary, optional part of this
schema.
This International Standard is designed to cover the holdings of all types of resources, physical and electronic,
all types of resource format such as printed text, visual images, sound recordings, videos, electronic media
and resources published or issued once, such as monographs or those published serially or in part.
This schema is primarily designed to be included in responses to queries. Two primary query types have been
identified and targeted, based on availability (main focus) and historical usage. Simply put, the schema's main
purpose is to answer the question “who has one or more copies of this resource or this group of resources, is
it available now and to me and what are the conditions?”
Although this International Standard can be used for reporting holdings to a federated metadata repository
such as a centralized union catalogue, metasearch database such as Google or centralized document
repository, this is not its primary focus. The focus is for interactive exchange of a combination of stable and
dynamic information. Reporting and harvesting convey only stable information and other schemas are already
in use for this purpose such as MODS, MARC 21 Holdings, COPAC and ONIX. Most of these schemas
include richer detail, especially in relation to serial holdings. For this same reason, this International Standard
is not intended to contain the detail necessary to predict new serial issues and claim missing serial issues.
In a similar vein, this International Standard is not designed to populate link resolver databases, although it
can be included in information sent to a resolver during a resolution process to declare known locations and
ask for alternatives or more information about known locations. Resolvers also can employ this schema in
information used to transfer information to another resolver.
How data is gathered and assembled to populate the holdings schema is also outside the scope of this
International Standard. Data may be dispersed in several locations such as a union catalogue, local catalogue
and a policy directory or repository. A variety of standards may be employed for this purpose including NCIP
for local holdings, XACML and LDAP for policy, authentication and authorization information and SRU and
Z39.50 for all types of searching and retrieval.
The holdings reported in this schema can relate to one or more bibliographic resources. As this schema is
employed in a query response, the bibliographic resource or resources will be known, therefore detailed
resource description is out of scope for this International Standard. This schema can be incorporated as a
fragment within other XML bibliographic resource descriptions such as MODS.

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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 20775:2009(E)

Information and documentation — Schema for holdings
information
1 Scope
This International Standard specifies a schema designed to cover the holdings of all types of resources,
physical and electronic, all types of resource format such as printed text, visual images, sound recordings,
videos, electronic media and resources published or issued once such as monographs or those published
serially or in part.
Though it is designed to be used as a schema in query responses, this International Standard does not
specify a query and response (such as SRU, Z39.50 or Open Search) including search attributes and index
definition.
This International Standard facilitates the interactive exchange of a combination of stable and dynamic
information.
How data is gathered and assembled to populate the schema for holdings is outside the scope of this
International Standard.
Detailed resource description is outside the scope of this International Standard as is also detailed information
on serials designed for claiming missing issues.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document. For dated
references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced
document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO 4217, Codes for the representation of currencies and funds
ISO 8459, Information and documentation — Classification of bibliographic data elements for use in data
interchange
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
3.1 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply
3.1.1
access
ability to open and view an electronic resource including an electronic document and a database index
3.1.2
bibliographic resource
entity, either serial or non-serial, that forms the basis for a single resource description
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
3.1.3
chronology
indication of the date of publication or date of issue of a component of a multi-part resource, distinguishing it
from other components of the same resource
3.1.4
component
unique bibliographic part of a set, such as a volume of a serial or multi-volume work
3.1.5
copy
tangible instance of a bibliographic resource or set, whether physical or electronic, comprising one or more
pieces
3.1.6
enumeration
alpha-numeric identification of a component of a multi-part resource, such as a volume or issue
3.1.7
holdings
information that describes, analyses and controls copies associated with a bibliographic resource
3.1.8
piece
unit of a copy on which transactions can be made, such as a physical part that can be lent or reserved, or an
electronic file that can be downloaded or accessed
3.1.9
set
collection of components of a bibliographic resource including multi-volume publications and resources
published serially, often received by a subscription purchase
3.2 Abbreviated terms
Abbreviated Description URL address
term
COPAC COPAC Academic and National Library http://copac.ac.uk/
catalogue, U.K.
COUNTER Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic http://www.projectcounter.org/
Resources
DanBib Danish Union Catalogue http://www.danbib.dk/index.php?doc=english
DCB Direct Consortia Borrowing —
GBV GBV Common Library Network of the German http://www.gbv.de/en/
States Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-
Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt,
Schleswig-Holstein, Thüringen and the
Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage.
ILL Inter-library loan —
LDAP Lightweight directory access protocol http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4510
IETC (Internet Engineering Task Force)
RFC 4510
MARC 21 MARC 21 concise format for holdings data, http://www.loc.gov/marc/holdings/
Holdings Library of Congress
MODS Metadata object description schema, Library of http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods//
Congress
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
Abbreviated Description URL address
term
NCIP ANSI/NISO Z39.83-1 http://www.niso.org/standards/
Circulation Interchange — Part 1: Protocol (NCIP)
ONIX ONIX for Books Product Information Message http://www.editeur.org/onix.html
ONIX for serials in development
OPAC Online public access catalogue. A generic term
used by libraries and makers of computer
software for libraries
OpenSearch OpenSearch is a collection of simple formats for http://www.opensearch.org/Specifications/OpenSear
the sharing of search results. ch/1.1#OpenSearch_description_document
OpenURL ANSI/NISO Z39.88 http://alcme.oclc.org/openurl/servlet/OAIHandler?ver
The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive b=ListSets
Services
OpenURL OpenURL Request Transfer Message http://www.openurl.info/registry/docs/pro/info:ofi/pro:r
Request Community Profile tm-2007
Transfer
Message
SRU Search Retrieve via URL, Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/standards/sru/
SUDOC Système universitaire de documentation, ABES http://www.sudoc.abes.fr/LNG=EN/
(Agence bibliographique de l'enseignement
supérieur), France
XACML eXtensible Access Control Markup Language, http://xml.coverpages.org/xacml.html
OASIS standards organization
XML Extensible Markup Language, W3C World Wide http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816/
Web Consortium
WorldCat World network of library content and services, http://www.worldcat.org/
OCLC, Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
4 Detailed requirements
4.1 Discovery to delivery
4.1.1 General considerations
Resource discovery is nowadays dispersed as metadata about resources are available in multiple locations. It
is no longer just via a library's OPAC, but also via internet search engines such as Google Scholar and Yahoo,
collective repositories and emerging freely accessible public interfaces of union catalogues, e.g. WorldCat,
Libraries Australia, SUDOC, GBV and Danbib just to name a few. Increasingly, not all data is held in any one
place; resource description is more widely dispersed than detailed holdings information. Another trend is the
increasing number of libraries choosing to make more comprehensive union catalogues the primary entry
point offered to their collections. Thus descriptive information is increasingly separated from management
information. As a consequence, discovery to delivery systems need a seamless way of gathering holdings
information needed for delivery to accompany discovered resource metadata. To do this, there is a
fundamental need for a standardized schema to include in a query response, containing holdings delivery and
access information. Some of this information is dynamic in that it is likely to be different each time it is
delivered. For example, loan policy is likely to be fairly stable whereas availability status is variable and needs
to be up-to-date to be valuable. Even policy is not fully stable as the policy can vary for different groups of
users, therefore data in relation to policy in a query response can be specific to a single request.
In the context of delivery, holdings responses need to provide sufficient, precise information regarding an
individual copy or set of copies to indicate whether or not a delivery request would be successful. The
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
holdings schema could provide information so that systems could narrow a result set to works where items
were immediately available. Examples of the “motives” for requesting holdings availability information are:
⎯ is there any copy available now at any branch? (single bibliographic resource)
⎯ do you have an available copy in any edition? (group of related bibliographic resources)
⎯ do you have a copy that is not restricted? (group of related bibliographic resources)
⎯ can I please make a reservation for the next available copy regardless of edition and what is the queue
status? (group of related bibliographic resources)
⎯ I (requester) live on a different continent; for me, is it possible to borrow or access an electronic copy, or
can you digitize it for me, or can you provide a reference look-up service for me?
As previously stated, the query part of discovery is out of scope for this schema. The query might or might not
include user attributes that would allow a server to respond with user specific policy and availability
information.
4.1.2 Relation to existing standards
This schema is intended as a more comprehensive and better defined alternative to the OPAC schema
defined within ISO 23950 and the associated ANSI/NISO Z39.50 holdings schema that has not been widely
implemented. There is one other schema in current use that partially fulfils this need, namely NCIP
(ANSI/NISO Z39.83-1), however this schema can only provide information for a single copy and not for a
group of copies of one or multiple resources. This schema has been derived from the ANSI/NISO Z39.50
holdings schema, updated to:
⎯ ensure that the schema is adequately understood by providing detailed element definitions, in accordance
with ISO 8459 as much as possible;
⎯ provide a clear scope statement with use cases;
⎯ reduce the complexity of the schema by
⎯ reducing from seven levels to one (B1-4; C1-3), clearly indicating optional and mandatory elements,
⎯ removing the distinction between B and C level views. This can be achieved by allowing optional
summary level information in all cases,
⎯ reducing unnecessary hierarchies in the structure,
⎯ removing elements that are not in common use;
⎯ allow the schema to be used as a stand-alone schema with some resource identification and description
1)
(minimum information such as an ISBN or other international identifier, a DOI® or an URL) or as a
fragment within other schemas, e.g. as a MODS extension;
⎯ simplify the element names, as closely as possible in accordance with ISO 8459.
This schema is designed to be used as a fragment in other schemas. It is being included as the structure for
the “possible suppliers” element of the NISO OpenURL Request Transfer Message.

1) DOI® is a registered trademark of the International DOI Foundation, Inc. This information is given for the convenience
of users of this document and does not constitute an endorsement by ISO of the product named.
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
4.2 Respond to holdings usage queries
4.2.1 General
NOTE This role for the schema is seen as emerging and is included as an option within this International Standard.
Increasingly, discovery systems want to provide evaluative information to their users that can be used in
manipulating result sets. This information consists of
⎯ historic circulation information,
⎯ when a copy or group of copies was last borrowed or accessed,
⎯ how many times in a given period a copy or group of copies has been circulated or accessed,
⎯ when a physical copy was last located (with RFID systems becoming increasingly used, this kind of
stocktake information is more readily available and recent).
Holdings usage information is also useful to managers of collections for acquisitions, digitization, weeding and
relocation decisions. It can also provide information on the effect of provision of a digital copy on the usage of
physical copies.
Examples of the “motives” for requesting holdings usage information are as follows.
⎯ Is this copy or group of copies widely used? (If so, I will purchase a copy for my collection.)
⎯ Has this copy or group of copies been used recently? (If so, I will purchase or digitize it, otherwise not,
despite it being popular once.)
⎯ If this copy or group of copies has not been widely used, or recently used in another collection, I will retire
mine to central storage (or discard).
⎯ To be able to sort my result set by relevance with the most popular items first.
⎯ To compare my statistics on the use of this electronic resource with the usage of the same resource in
other collections.
⎯ What is the circulation for all copies of a work for a comparable period before and since a digital copy
became available?
⎯ Holdings usage information is all dynamic, in that it can vary each time the information is provided and
needs to be current to be valuable.
Note that there are many differences in the practice of collecting historical information about holdings usage.
Many libraries avoid collecting the information as their systems only collect information at a transaction level
that potentially endangers user confidentiality. They may collect information for selected borrowers only, e.g.
housebound users. Some systems collect usage statistics by piece, independent of user or borrower and
some systems have a means of neutralizing user identification within historical transactions.
4.2.2 Relation to existing standards
There is no known schema currently in common use that fulfils this requirement to respond to online queries
for both physical and electronic resources. Reporting standards exist, such as ANSI/NISO Z39.7 and
COUNTER.
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
5 Schema outline
5.1 General observations
This schema focuses on needs of responses to holdings delivery and usage queries, combining both static
and dynamic information. (It is important to re-iterate here that the actual query, its search attributes and
indexes are out of scope.)
At the top level, there may be multiple holding structures for a resource or group of resources. A new instance
of “holding” is made for each different “institutionIdentifier”. The schema at the top level is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 — Holdings
5.2 Resource
The “resource” is repeatable so that the associated holdings in “holding” may relate to a single bibliographic
resource or to a group of resources. The element of commonality for the group may vary. For example the
group could comprise:
⎯ a serial representing multiple issues published over a given time period or an open-ended time period;
⎯ all expressions and manifestations of a work, e.g. all different translations, all different editions;
⎯ a group of resources retrieved by a search and represented as a result set.
The “resource” is optional as the schema may be embedded within another schema already containing
bibliographic information.
The “resource” block may simply identify a resource or group of resources with an identifier or pointer such as
a URL. It may optionally include information about the “form” of the resource and “partDetail”.
When “resource” is repeated, representing more than one bibliographic resource, the resources are regarded
as interchangeable, i.e. connected by “or”, and the “copiesSummary” block collates information for all copies
related to all resources.
5.3 Holding
5.3.1 General
Figure 2 shows the top level elements of Holding.
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
The “holding” is mandatory and repeatable. For each separate institution a separate “holding” instance is
required. “holding” consists of information about the holding institution and its addresses plus three other
information blocks:
⎯ “holdingSimple” or “holdingStuctured”;
⎯ “summaryPolicy”; and
⎯ optionally “summaryHistory”.

Figure 2 — Holding
Under “holding”, the element “institutionIdentifier” is mandatory together with an instance of either
“holdingSimple” or “holdingStructured”. The choice of the appropriate rendition of holdings (simple or
structured) rests with the server responding to the query. The reason for this is that one resource may be held
as a unit at one institution but as multiple parts at another, or a requester may believe a request to be for a
single part whereas it is actually a multiple-part resource. By replying with “holdingStructured” a server is
indicating that there are multiple parts that are not equivalent and that therefore the copies may not be
interchangeable from a particular user's viewpoint. Such a response could be viewed by the querying system
as a suggestion to narrow a request.
The “holdingSimple”, “holdingStructured”, “summaryPolicy” and “summaryHistory” all contain information that
summarizes copy information for the ensemble of copies and pieces that relate to the resource or resources,
or in the case of the schema being a fragment within another schema, the copies relate to bibliographic
resources described elsewhere in the larger schema.
5.3.2 The holding institution
This group of elements (“institutionIdentifier”, “physicalLocation”, “physicalAddress” and “electronicAddress”)
contains simple identification and address detail about an institution holding one or more copies of the
resource or group of resources. Multiple addresses are possible and they may be free format or inherit a
structure from another specification, e.g. from NCIP.
5.3.3 Holding simple and holding structured
There are two separate blocks “holdingSimple” and “holdingStructured”. One of the two separate blocks is
required; more than one block is not allowed. The two blocks summarize holdings in different ways. The
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
simple version is appropriate where the pieces are interchangeable, at least in the context of a particular
query. Monographs, monographic works, and fully cited serial articles would typically use the simple version.
The structured version is appropriate where there are different components forming a set, each component
having different content from other components in the set. Therefore, it is necessary to represent this structure
and a summary can only be given at component level. Unlike “holdingSimple”, every piece reported is not
interchangeable within the context of a particular query. Therefore for “holdingSimple”, it is relevant to give an
indication of availability of the pieces in general, i.e. “at least one of the group is or is not available”, but for
“holdingStructured” it is only relevant for each individual component. To summarize holdings at a set level, the
reserved set label “all sets” may be used.
It is the responding server that determines whether “holdingSimple” or “holdingStructured” is appropriate. This
is because data may be held differently on each database. For example, the request may be for Lord of the
Rings that is held in multiple parts in one collection, so the response is Structured but as a single volume in
another collection, so the response is Simple. If a collection has it both in parts and in a single volume and
wants to report on all copies, then Structured is appropriate.
5.3.4 Holding — Simple
5.3.4.1 Top level structure
Figure 3 shows the top level structure of Holding simple and the detail of its child element, Copies summary.
For monograph resources, the “holdingSimple” block provides summary information including counts of copies
and an indication of the earliest date any one copy can be made available, how many are available and the
purposes for which they may be available (loan, copy, reference look-up, etc.). The length of the reservation
queue for the ensemble of the copies may be given, accommodating the fact that reservation queues are
more frequently held at title level rather than copy level; the first available of a group of identical copies will
satisfy the request.

Figure 3 — Holding — Simple
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ISO 20775:2009(E)
5.3.4.2 Copy information
Figure 4 illustrates Copy information (child element of Holdings simple) and its child elements with the
exception of availability information.
The “copyInformation” includes relatively stable information, namely identifiers of the copy and its resource,
l
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