Hi Sebastian,

> We are considering GOKb as a possible solution to manage our ever
> growing online resources and, in particular, to benefit from and
> ingest in our ILS, the ever growing number of scholarly journals and
> monographs published in open access. We would like to find a way to
> incorporate these selectively and in packages in our catalog and to
> maintaining the links in our records up to date.
>
> I was thinking that GOKb could provide an answer, but I am wondering
> how GOKb has been implemented—in a very practical manner, i.e. how is
> GOKb managed; would we have to host on a server locally; how would we
> ingest records in our ILS (Koha); how are URLs in the 856$u maintained
> (and accompanying notes in the 856$z); etc.  In a very practical
> manner, how could we implement GOKb today, what would it take?

The GOKb is available as OSS, see <https://github.com/openlibraryenvironment/gokb>, so it would be possible to host your own version. Our aim however is to manage the data cooperatively in one central system hosted by the GOKb project partners. Libraries will then be able to add packages to this central system, which will be a shared resource for all of its users. The basis for data imports are KBART files <https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/kbart>, not MARC21 records. The GOKb provides its data for export via open APIs <https://github.com/openlibraryenvironment/gokb/wiki/API>, where the primary way to retrieve full records of GOKb data is OAI-PMH. For ingesting the full breadth of information contained in GOKb, your ILS will therefore need to provide a way to import GOKb OAI records. We can give you access to our test system and the prototype of the import client so you can get familiar with GOKb.

> Perhaps more importantly, I am finding literature and posts about GOKb
> up to 2016, but not much since then and I am wondering where the
> project stands?  Would it make sense to invest staff time and training in GOKb?

In 2017 there has been a major change in the organisational structure of GOKb: three German organisations (hbz, VZG, ZDB) joined the Steering Committee and took over the hosting and maintenance of the software from their American partners. This switch coincided with the start of a big software backend rework, and the plan to overhaul the import & management UI. As a result, ingestion of new resources in the official GOKb system is paused at this moment. The software is in active development though, and we are working on having an updated system available for everyone soon. GOKb is also cooperating with and will be used by Folio <https://wiki.folio.org/display/RM/ERM+Sub+Group> and the German ERMS LAS:eR <https://laser.hbz-nrw.de/>.

> I am wondering whether we could discuss these questions and explore
> whether and how we could become involved?  We could discuss in German,
> but unfortunately, writing has become much easier for me in English
> than in German.

If you like we can also organize a conference call to discuss your questions.

Best,

Johann