This paper highlights three industry initiatives currently working on ways to improve access to licensed electronic content. The three initiatives are KBART, IOTA, and PIE-J. Background information on OpenURL, link resolvers, and knowledge bases, as well as detailed descriptions of the access problems the initiatives were developed to solve, is provided. Understanding these initiatives can help those involved in the electronic serials supply chain improve their own work, communicate effectively with others, and advocate for adoption of best practices. Together, these initiatives hold great promise for a future with fewer broken links and improved access for users. L ibraries today rely heavily on electronic full-text content. Users like electronic access, but become frustrated when links to content do not work. The OpenURL standard ushered in a new and much improved way of linking to licensed electronic content, but despite broad adoption of OpenURL, links still fail and access to licensed content still eludes users more often than librarians would like. Even when links resolve correctly, users sometimes are unable to find what they seek because of how journal content is displayed on provider websites. This paper discusses some of the reasons behind failed access and describes in detail three industry initiatives currently working on ways to improve access to electronic content. The three initiatives are recommended practices for Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART), a two-year research project aimed at Improving OpenURLs Through Analytics (IOTA), and recommended practices for the Presentation and Identification of E-Journals (PIE-J). While these initiatives will not solve all access problems, they offer solutions to specific, known causes of electronic access failure. Understanding exactly what they do can help those involved in the electronic serials supply chain improve their own work, communicate effectively with others, and advocate for adoption of best practices by publishers and other content providers. To fully understand the initiatives, background information is presented on OpenURL, link resolvers, and knowledge bases, as well as detailed descriptions of the access problems the initiatives were developed to improve. The ultimate goal of this paper is to enhance understanding of the work being done by KBART, IOTA, and PIE-J to provide those who deal with electronic access issues with the information they need to effect change and ultimately bring better service to users.

Previous research has shown that when students are required to submit a draft and a revision of their writing, large proportions of students do not improve across drafts. We implemented a writing assignment in which students were permitted to submit up to four optional drafts. To encourage substantive revisions, students were awarded additional points if they received all points on the grading rubric. Based on the grades of the instructors, 31% of students eventually earned perfect scores in this assignment, compared to 13% in a typical single revision assignment. Permitting students to submit up to four optional drafts resulted in nearly the same amount of grading for the instructor as requiring students to submit two drafts.