Reports from Midwinter 2010

ALCTS Liaisons and Representatives Report on Midwinter 2010 Activities

Editor’s note: We are featuring reports on groups outside of ALCTS with whom we have formal liaisons in this separate article.

ALA Advocacy Coordinating Group

Eleanor Cook, East Carolina University

I attended two meetings at ALA Midwinter related to advocacy, representing ALCTS.

The Advocacy Coordinating Group is a collection of individuals who serve as liaisons to/from various divisions and areas of interest within ALA. It met on Saturday, January 16, 2010. The most interesting topic at this meeting was a description of "Snapshot Day" which was developed by the New Jersey State Library. Materials which supported this effort were distributed. The program is easy to replicate and does not require much funding. It can be replicated on many levels and by different types of libraries. Check the Library Snapshot Day site for more information.

The other program I attended was “Advocacy on the Front Lines: How to Make a Difference from Where You Sit” which took place on Saturday, January 16, 2010. The program addressed the question: Do you think advocacy is just for the higher-ups in your organization? Everyone can, and should, have a role in advocating for their library and the profession. The program was a panel discussion featuring ALA President Camila Alire and guests in a discussion on Frontline Advocacy, a unique initiative designed to motivate, encourage and train librarians and library support staff to seize opportunities to promote the diverse professionals, resources, and services of public, school, academic, and special libraries. The panel discussion was sponsored by the Camila Alire Presidential Initiative Workgroups in cooperation with the ALA Office for Library Advocacy, Governance Office and Office for Literacy and Outreach Services.

Both of these activities are of relevance to technical services areas since technical services staff and librarians can use these methods to illustrate the value of they do for the organization.

ALA Committee on Professional Ethics

Bradford Lee Eden, University of California, Santa Barbara

This group held two meetings during the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting on Saturday, January 16 and Monday, January 18. I was only able to attend the Monday morning meeting. Most of the meeting was spent discussed this committee's program proposal for the 2010 ALA Annual Conference titled: Ethics in a Digital World: Professional Presence in Social Networking Spaces. Other topics included the ALA 2015 Strategic Plan, reports from various ALA Unit representatives, and a visit from Jim Rettig, Executive Board Liaison.

American Association of Law Libraries Technical Services Special Interest Section

Ajaye Bloomstone, LSU Law Center

The following programs were sponsored by AALL Technical Services Special Interest Section and held at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries:

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? The Future of Print Periodicals in Law Libraries
Taking the Aggravation Out of Aggregators: An Update on Aggregator-Neutral Bibliographic Records
Here’s to Your (Digital Archive’s) Good Health! Auditing and Evaluating Digital Preservation Projects
Next-Gen Integrated Library System Features Relevant to the Private Law Firm Library

Other programs presented during AALL 2009 which were of interest to technical services librarians:

Latest Trends in Library Automation: Building Creative and Inspiring Discovery Platforms
Academic Law Library of 2015: Predicting the Future and Making It Happen
Thurgood Marshall Papers: A Case Study in Acquiring Significant Archival Donations…Journey Through the Legacy of a Civil Rights Pioneer
Unfair Publishing practice? Who’s to Stop Them? Superlawlibrarian! (and the Attorney General)
Beyond Copyright? How License Agreements and Digital Rights Management Pose Challenges to Fair Use and the Provisions of Electronic or Media Services
Managing Employees Across Generations
Charting a New Course Mid-Career
MARC-Edit: A Magic Wand for MARC Records
Working Smart: Innovative Ways to Do More With Your Day

Workshops sponsored by AALL TS-SIS during AALL 2009 or of interest to technical services librarians:

Managing From the Middle: Techniques for Success in Technical Services

Programs and workshops sponsored by AALL Technical Services Special Interest Section of interest to technical services librarians and scheduled for the 2010 annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries (nonmembers may call AALL if interested in attendance).

Programs

What’s In a Name: CORE and I-2, New Standards to Improve Efficiency in the Electronic Resources Environment
Mapping a Digital Collection Development Policy: New Sign Posts of a Whole New Road
Developing Your Supervisory Skills: Motivating and Retaining Tenured, Non-Professional or Unionized Employees
Developing leaders: Inside, Outside, and Together
Mapping Uncharted Terrains: Introducing Archival Best Practices to the Management of Law School, Court and Law Firm Historical Collections
Open Source ILS: What a Service Oriented System Brings to You and Your Library
Glass Half-Full: Explore Techniques for Putting Optimism to Work as a Management Tool in Difficult Times
Catalogers Today: Skill Sets, Expectations and Challenges
SKOS and HIVE: Enhancing the Creation, Design, and Flow of Information
Bringing Increased Efficiency to Technical Services: Is EOCR for You?
The Ever-Evolving World of Vendor-Supplied MARC Records
Beyond Wayback: Preserving Born-Digital Ephemera
Accounting: Prepare for Your Future
MARC and RDA: An Overview
Changing Roles for Technical Services: Faculty Publications and Institutional Repositories
How Are We to Accomplish That Much More With That Much Less?
Facilitation: The Secret to Successful Meetings
Is Quality Control in Academic Law Library Online Catalogs Declining?

ASCLA Accessibility Assembly

Kevin Furniss, Tulane University

At the 2009 ALA Annual Conference, I volunteered to review the ALCTS Definitions of Digital Preservation document for the Accessibility Assembly in response to a concern that the document did not address accessibility issues. Upon very careful review of the document, I determined that the document more than adequately addressed issues of access to digitally preserved information. Further, I recommended to the Assembly that the document be accepted as currently written, and that the Assembly monitor the application of the Definitions to digital preservation projects. My recommendations were accepted by the Assembly.

Liaison to the American Institute for Conservation

Jennifer Hain Teper, University of Illinois

No major collaborations between the AIC and ALCTS are underway at this date. News from the AIC includes the following.

The AIC launched a new web site in the spring of 2009. The new site ( http://www.conservation-us.org/) has migrated many of the old resources to new web addresses, and also now includes more dynamic resources such as a news blog (including specialty group updates), a “fast facts” feature, a “stories in conservation” feature, and a wiki. The wiki feature will be used to transfer all previous specialty group catalogues (for instance, the Book Conservation Catalog draft and the completed Paper Conservation Catalog) to the web for more universal access and moderated editing and updates.

With Stanford University’s announcement that they will no longer support the Conservation Distribution List (ConsDistList) and Conservation On Line (CoOL), the AIC picked up both of these resources in September of 2009 and is now working to integrate them fully into their new web site. Again, many previous links to the Stanford webserver have been migrated to the AIC webserver.

Freedom to Read Foundation

Kay Ann Cassell, Rutgers University

The Freedom to Read Foundation welcomed the new Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation, Barbara M. Jones. She brings a rich background in library administration, scholarship and intellectual freedom advocacy to this position. She has been active in intellectual freedom issues both in ALA and in IFLA.

United States Patriot Act

President Obama Administration’s decision not to appeal a ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that places limits on the government’s ability to impose a gag order when it uses National Security Letters (NSLs) has rendered the Second Circuit ruling final. Unfortunately, the government continues to assert that the gag order imposed on “John Doe” must remain in place for national security reasons. In support of its argument, it filed a classified brief and affidavit that was only seen by Judge Marrero as an ex parte filing. Based on the materials in that classified file, Judge Marrero ruled that the government had demonstrated the necessity of keeping the existence of the NSL secret and ordered the gag order to remain in effect. The judge then ordered the case to be closed.

Miami-Dade School Board Case

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida versus Miami-Dade School Board lawsuit challenged the Miami-Dade School Board’s decision to remove from its classrooms and libraries all copies of the book Vamos a Cuba and its English-language companion book, A Visit to Cuba, on the grounds that this picture book aimed at four- to six-year-olds fails to accurately convey the harsh political realities of life in Cuba. A federal district court judge in Miami held that the removal decision was unconstitutional, finding that the claimed inaccuracies were a pretext for imposing “political orthodoxy.” On February 5, 2009, the Eleventh Circuit overturned that decision, holding 2–1 that the school board’s decision did not violate the First Amendment. It ruled that the district court erred in finding that the book had been removed for political reasons, and that book’s factual inaccuracies justified the book’s removal from Miami-Dade school libraries. The ACLU of Miami appealed this decision to the United States Supreme Court, and on November 16, 2009, the Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari, upholding the Eleventh Court’s decision thus permanently banning Vamos a Cuba from the Miami-Dade Schools.

Valerie Plame Wilson Case

The Freedom to Read Foundation joined the amicus curiae brief in support of former CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, who was prohibited by the CIA from including her pre-2000 dates of service in her published memoirs, even though those dates were included in an unclassified letter from the CIA published in the Congressional Record. At the trial, the federal district court held that the CIA’s prohibition on publication did not violate the First Amendment, and Plame Wilson appealed the decision to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. On November 12, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court, stating that classified information retains its classified status even if there is public disclosure of the information. It further held that the CIA can require Plame Wilson to keep her dates of service classified.

Membership

The Freedom to Read Foundation is continuing to offer free one-year memberships to recent graduates of LIS programs. To become a personal member of the Freedom to Read Foundation, and to have your libraries and other institutions become organizational members, please send a check ($35+ for personal members, $100+ for organizations) to: Freedom to Read Foundation, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611. Alternatively, you can join or renew your membership by calling (800) 545-2433, ext. 4226, or online.

Heritage Preservation

Tom Clareson, Lyrasis

I serve as a board member (currently holding the position of Secretary) to the Heritage Preservation, and have served a number of terms as a liaison from ALCTS/PARS to Heritage Preservation. I give updates and arrange for Heritage Preservation staff to present at PARS meetings, including the Preservation Administrators Interest Group meeting and other section functions.

The accomplishments of Heritage Preservation are too many to enumerate on this form. For the most recent information about the organization, please go to their web site.

NISO Liaison Report

Cindy Hepfer, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

I am honored to have been reappointed by ALCTS President Mary Case to a second term as the ALA Voting Representative to NISO. I expect to serve in this capacity through the June 2011 conference, when a new ALA Voting Representative will be appointed.

I continue to distribute information about NISO activities as well as the organization’s monthly newsletter to the ALCTS Leaders List. I distribute notifications regarding NISO and ISO standards ballots to chairs of ALA committees which include information standards in their charges, as well as to other interested individuals who have asked to be subscribed to the list niso@ala.org. One of the members of that discussion list, Diane Hillmann, posts the information that I distribute to niso@ala.org about ballots to the Standards Watch section of the LITA blog at http://litablog.org/category/standards/. I wish to thank Diane for her help in keeping ALA members, and others who read the LITA blog, informed about standards currently at ballot. The niso@ala.org list and the LITA blog both represent opportunities for ALA members to keep in touch with ongoing NISO standards voting activity and to have the chance to offer pertinent comments. Of course, this semi-annual ANO column provides information as well.

At the Seattle airport on the way back from ALA Midwinter 2007, a librarian from my own institution said to me “Oh, NISO – that’s for technical services librarians.” I was stunned at this comment from an otherwise extremely well-informed information professional. While technical services librarians are well aware of the benefits of standards and take them seriously, there are many other ALA members – including reference and ILL librarians, systems staff, and those involved whose work involves publishing – who should also pay heed to information standards and guidelines. All librarians, no matter what area of a library or an information organization they work in, should have an appreciation of what standards mean to our daily work. Since ALCTS appoints the ALA voting representative to NISO, I urge ALCTS members to talk to peers in their own institutions about the importance of national and international information standards. We all need to care about standards work!

Standards Activity July 1-Dec. 31, 2009

Like the first half of 2009, the second half of the year saw a great deal of standards activity. Below I provide descriptions of NISO and ISO ballots – with the information usually lifted directly from the announcements that I received from NISO – as well as information regarding outcomes.

NISO Standards

Ballot title: Move NCIP (Z39.83-2008: NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol) from Periodic Review to Continuous Maintenance

Under Periodic Review, ANSI/NISO standards must be reaffirmed at least once during every five-year period. Continuous Maintenance allows standards to be reviewed and revised more frequently and without the need for a formal ballot. However, under Continuous Maintenance, a thorough procedure for how changes will be proposed and adopted must be published and followed. The referenced documents outline the proposal for procedures that will allow NCIP to move from Periodic Review to Continuous Maintenance.

A "Yes" vote on this ballot indicates that you are in favor of adopting the proposed procedures. NCIP will move to Continuous Maintenance. A "No" vote on this ballot indicates that you are opposed to adopting the proposed procedures. NCIP will remain under Periodic Review. You must supply comments if you choose to vote "No." "Abstain" indicates that you choose neither to vote in favor nor against the issue. You must supply comments if you choose to abstain.

Voting deadline: August 28, 2009. Result: I was unaware of this ballot and did not vote. Voting summary: 70 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent voted YES.

Ballot title: Proposed New Work Item: Physical Delivery of Library Resources

This ballot is to approve a proposed new work item on the Physical Delivery of Library Resources.

Members have thirty (30) days to vote on the work item. Your vote options are Yes (approve the project), No (do not approve the project), Abstain (from voting). Comments are required for No votes. If you would like to nominate someone to participate on the Working Group (if the project is approved), please provide a name and contact information in your comments. NISO Working Group participation is not limited to NISO members.

The goal of this work item is to develop a statement of best practices related to the delivery of library materials. To achieve this objective, this proposal is to convene a NISO Working Group to explore the problem and deliver a Recommended Practice document describing possible solutions and to implement an education and adoption plan for encouraging implementation of the solution(s). The proposal was approved by the Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee on July 24, 2009, and is now being sent to the NISO voting membership for agreement to begin a new work project and to elicit expressions of interest in participating in the work.

In order for this item to be approved so that a Working Group can be formed to pursue this work, a minimum of 10 percent of NISO's Voting Members must express interest in this new work item. All those who express interest will be added to the Physical Delivery Recommended Practice Voting Pool. Members can join the Voting Pool at any time up until the final ballot at the end of the project.

Voting deadline: September 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 44 percent of eligible voting members voted; 76 percent voted YES and 24 percent voted NO.

Ballot title: Proposed New Work Item: Standardized Markup for Journal Articles

This ballot is to approve a proposed new work item on the "Standardized Markup for Journal Articles Based on the NLM's Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite."

Members have thirty (30) days to vote on the work item. Your vote options are: Yes (approve the project), No (do not approve the project), or Abstain (from voting). Comments are required for No votes. If you would like to nominate someone to participate on the Working Group (if the project is approved), please provide a name and contact information in your comments. NISO Working Group participation is not limited to NISO members.

The goal of this work item is to take the currently existing National Library of Medicine (NLM) Journal Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite version 3.0, the three journal article schemas, and the documentation and shepherd it through the NISO standardization process. The intent of this proposal is for the Tag Suite to be a NISO standard and each of the schemas to be a "sub-standard" or appendix to the Tag Suite standard. To achieve this objective, this proposal is to convene a NISO Working Group with the intention of proposing that the Tag Suite, as it currently stands, be accepted as a Draft Standard following a brief period of review within the group.

The proposal was approved by the Content and Collection Management Topic Committee on July 29, 2009, and is now being sent to the NISO voting membership for agreement to begin a new work project and to elicit expressions of interest in participating in the work.

In order for this item to be approved so that a Working Group can be formed to pursue this work, a minimum of 10 percent of NISO's Voting Members must express interest in this new work item. All those who express interest will be added to the Standardized Markup for Journal Articles Voting Pool. Members can join the Voting Pool at any time up until the final ballot at the end of the project.

Voting deadline: September 2, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 48 percent of eligible voting members voted; 100 percent voted YES.

Standards with Voting in Progress

Ballot title: Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004, The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services

This is a periodic review ballot for the published standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004, The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services. It is available for download.

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee.

NISO's Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee recommends a vote of REAFFIRM for ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004.

This recommendation is made based on feedback of current use of this standard. You are encouraged to provide comments with your vote that might provide the Topic Committee with additional information regarding use of this standard.

As a member of the voting pool, you are required to vote on this ballot. Please cast your ballot with one of the following voting options:

Reaffirm.

Minor editorial corrections may be included in the reaffirmed standard.

Withdraw.

If this action is approved, the standard will be removed from the list of approved NISO standards. The standard will remain available as a withdrawn standard for five (5) years. “Withdraw” votes are considered negative votes (i.e., a vote to not reaffirm).

Abstain.

It is expected that all members of a Voting Pool vote. If the Voting Member feels that, despite originally joining the Voting Pool with the intention to vote, that the Voting Member can no longer record a voting position, the Member may choose to “Abstain.” Members should provide the reason(s) for abstaining. Possible reasons include but are not limited to: a perceived conflict of interest, the inability to reach internal consensus, or a lack of expertise to evaluate areas addressed by the draft.

Please provide comments with Withdraw votes. Comments may accompany all ballots.

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010, later changed to February 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted REAFFIRM. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies

This is a periodic review ballot for the published standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies. It is available for download.

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee.

Topic Committee Recommendation

NISO's Content and Collection Management Topic Committee recommends a vote of "Reaffirm" for ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies.

This recommendation is made based on feedback of current use of this standard; the openness and availability of NISO standards; and because of the current activity in this area, particularly as relates to interoperability, with SKOS, and at the ISO level. At the ISO level, this standard relates to ISO 2788, Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri. There is also ISO 5864, Documentation—Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri. There is currently work underway to merge these two standards, into a new revised ISO standard, ISO 25964-1, Information and documentation—Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies—Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval. This is currently at DIS ballot, to close March 26, 2010. There is also a part 2 being developed, Information and documentation – Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies – Part 2: Interoperability with other vocabularies. This is still in development.

You are encouraged to provide comments with your vote that might provide the Topic Committee with additional information regarding use of this standard.

As a member of the voting pool, you are required to vote on this ballot. Please cast your ballot with one of the following voting options:

Reaffirm.

Minor editorial corrections may be included in the reaffirmed standard.

Withdraw.

Abstain.

Please provide comments with Withdraw votes. Comments may accompany all ballots.

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010, later changed to February 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted REAFFIRM. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.18-2005, Scientific and Technical Reports - Preparation, Presentation, and Preservation

This is a periodic review ballot for the published standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.18-2005, Scientific and Technical Reports - Preparation, Presentation, and Preservation. It is available for download

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee.

NISO's Content and Collection Management Topic Committee recommends a vote of REAFFIRM for ANSI/NISO Z39.18-2005.

As a member of the voting pool, you are required to vote on this ballot. Please cast your ballot with one of the following voting options:

Reaffirm.

Minor editorial corrections may be included in the reaffirmed standard.

Withdraw.

Abstain.

Please provide comments with Withdraw votes. Comments may accompany all ballots.

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010, later changed to February 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted REAFFIRM. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.84-2005, Syntax for the Digital Object Identifier

This is a periodic review ballot for the published standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.84-2005, Syntax for the Digital Object Identifier. It is available for download.

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee.

NISO's Content and Collection Management Topic Committee recommends a vote of REAFFIRM for ANSI/NISO Z39.84-2005.

This recommendation is made based on current activity related to this standard. At this time, the whole DOI system (syntax, resolution, metadata, and unifying infrastructures) is proceeding through ISO, with an expected publication in 2010. Following reaffirmation and upon finalization of the ISO effort, the Topic Committee will be studying the standard more closely to determine if revision might be needed for Z39.84. Feedback from the Z39.84 Maintenance Agency (the International DOI Foundation) regarding some changes needed to the standard has already been received. You are encouraged to provide comments with your vote that might provide the TC with additional information regarding needs for a revision or about current use of the standard. Please note that a revision can begin at any time following the reaffirmation of the current standard.

As a member of the voting pool, you are required to vote on this ballot. Please cast your ballot with one of the following voting options:

Reaffirm.

Minor editorial corrections may be included in the reaffirmed standard.

Withdraw.

Abstain.

Please provide comments with Withdraw votes. Comments may accompany all ballots. You are encouraged to provide comments with your vote that might provide the Topic Committee with additional information regarding use of this standard.

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010, later changed to February 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted REAFFIRM. Voting summary: not yet available

Ballot title: Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005, Bibliographic References

This is a periodic review ballot for the published standard, ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005, Bibliographic References. It is available for download.

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee.

NISO's Content and Collection Management Topic Committee recommends a vote of REAFFIRM for ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005.

This recommendation is made based on current use of this standard; in addition, this is a revision of an earlier standard, and the Topic Committee has not been received information regarding need for further revision at this time.

As a member of the voting pool, you are required to vote on this ballot. Please cast your ballot with one of the following voting options:

Reaffirm.

Minor editorial corrections may be included in the reaffirmed standard.

Withdraw.

Abstain.

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010, later changed to February 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted REAFFIRM. Voting summary: not yet available.

ISO Standards

Ballot title: ISO/FDIS, Terminology work — Principles and methods

This is a liaison ballot from Technical Committee ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content resources, Subcommittee SC 1, Principles and methods.

This is the third edition of the Standard that establishes the basic principles and methods for preparing and compiling terminologies both inside and outside the framework of standardization, and describes the links between objects, concepts, and their terminological representations. It also establishes general principles governing the formation of designations and the formulation of definitions. This International Standard does not stipulate procedures for the layout of international terminology standards, which are treated in ISO 10241.

Voting deadline: July 22, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 41 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted YES.

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 29383, Terminology policies — Development and implementation

This is a liaison standard from ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content resources, Subcommittee SC 1, Principles and methods. This standard was previously issued in two parts when it was a Committee Draft (CD). The Draft International Standard (DIS) version has now merged those parts into one standard.

This International Standard provides campaigners, policy-makers and other decision makers in governments and administration, non-profit and commercial organizations with guidelines and a methodology for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategic plan for stating a terminology policy, i.e. a conscious, systematic and managed approach to the creation, maintenance and use of terminology in, and for, defined user communities.

Voting deadline: August 5, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 49 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted YES.

Ballot title: ISO/FDIS 15511, International Standard identifier for libraries and related organizations (ISIL)

This ballot is for the final draft standard, ISO/FDIS 15511, Information and documentation — International Standard identifier for libraries and related organizations (ISIL). An ISIL identifies an organization, i.e. a library, an archive, a museum or a related organization, or one of its subordinate units, which is responsible for an action or service in an informational environment (e.g. creation of machine-readable information), throughout its life. It can be used to identify the originator or holder of a resource (e.g. library material or collection in an archive).It is intended to have a minimum impact on already existing systems.

When voting and commenting keep in mind that at this final stage a "Yes" vote can only have editorial non-substantive comments. If a sufficient number of Yes votes are obtained, the standard will proceed to publication.

Voting deadline: September 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 43 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted YES.

Ballot title: ISO 22310:2006 Systematic Review

This is a systematic review ballot of the published standard, ISO 22310:2006 Information and documentation -- Guidelines for standards drafters for stating records management requirements in standards.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: September 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted to CONFIRM. Voting summary: 54 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 96 percent voted to confirm, 4 percent (1) voted revise/amend.

Ballot title: New Work Item ISO/WD 32000-2, Document management – Portable document format – Part 2: PDF 2.0

This is a liaison ballot from TC171/SC2 to approve a new work item and the working draft for the standard, ISO/WD 32000-2, Document management – Portable document format – Part 2: PDF 2.0.

This part of the PDF standard will add new features to ISO 32000-1 including support for geospatial data to images, support SWF navigation for collections, adds general rich media annotation type, support for barcodes, adds PRC to list of supported 3D models, adds structure elements for MathML, and enhances the accessibility.

United States TAG members may "recommend" a United States vote and provide comments. The United States vote will be submitted by the TC171 US TAG (AIIM). We may also nominate an expert to participate on this project. If anyone is interested in working on this project, please indicate the name and contact information in your comments.

Vote options: Yes, No, Abstain.

Voting deadline: September 18, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 49 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/CD 19005-2, Electronic document file format for long-term preservation – Part 2: (PDF/A-2)

This is a liaison ballot for ISO/CD 19005-2, Document management – Electronic document file format for long-term preservation – Part 2: Use of ISO 32000-1 (PDF/A-2). This is the earliest, committee draft stage, and your best opportunity to get any substantive changes to the standard.

This part of ISO 19005 extends the capabilities of PDF/A described in Part 1 of ISO 19005 and is based on PDF version 1.7 (as defined in ISO 32000-1) rather than PDF version 1.4 which is used as the basis of Part 1. The added capabilities provided by this part of ISO 19005 are through compliance with PDF version 1.7 and many of the features enabled by that version include: 1) Improvements to tagged PDF (for enhanced accessibility; 2) Compressed Object and XRef streams (for smaller file sizes; 3) PDF/A-compliant file attachments, portable collections and PDF packages; 4) Transparency; and 5) JPEG 2000 compression.

United States TC46 TAG members may "recommend" a United States vote and provide comments. The United States vote will be submitted by the TC171 US TAG (AIIM).

Voting deadline: September 21, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 46 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/CD 14289, Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility (PDF/UA)

This is a liaison ballot for ISO/CD 14289, Document management applications – Electronic document file format enhancement for accessibility (PDF/UA). This is the earliest, committee draft stage, and your best opportunity to get any substantive changes to the standard.

The primary purpose of this International Standard is to define an implementation of ISO 32000-2, known as PDF/UA (Universal Accessibility) that provides a mechanism for representing electronic documents rendered in the PDF format in a manner that allows the file to be accessible. These goals are accomplished by identifying the set of PDF components that may be used, and restrictions on the form of their use, within conforming PDF/UA files. PDF/UA is intended as a companion standard to be used in conjunction with ISO 32000, ISO 19005, ISO 15930, and other standards as may apply for the purpose of achieving accessibility.

United States TC46 TAG members may "recommend" a United States vote and provide comments. The United States vote will be submitted by the TC171 US TAG (AIIM).

Voting deadline: September 22, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 46 percent of eligible voting members voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes

Ballot title: ISO/CD 13391, Management system for records — Requirements

This is a new standard that specifies requirements for a Management System for Records where an organizations needs to demonstrate its ability to create and control records from its business activities for as long as they are required. It is part of the ISO 30200 family of standards, which is being developed within the management system standards framework to be compatible and to share elements and methodology with other Management System Standards.

Your vote options are: Yes (approve for progression to the Draft International Standard (DIS) stage); No (do not approve for DIS stage); or Abstain. Comments are required for No and Abstain votes; comments are optional for Yes votes.

Voting deadline: September 29, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 49 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/CD 13390, Records management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary

This is a new standard developed to be the basis of the framework for the ISO 30200 family of standards: Management System for Records. It describes fundamentals of a Management System for Records, which form the subject of the ISO 30200 family, and defines related terms. All other standards in the family use the vocabulary defined in this standard.

Voting deadline: September 29, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 49 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/CD 14641, Specifications...information system for electronic documents preservation

This is a liaison ballot for ISO/CD 14641, Electronic archiving - Specifications concerning the design and the operation of an information system for electronic documents preservation. This is the earliest, committee draft stage, and your best opportunity to get any substantive changes to the standard.

This standard provides a set of technical specifications and organizational policies to be implemented for capture, archival and access of digital documents; ensuring legibility, integrity and traceability of these documents for the duration of their preservation and use. This standard is applicable to fixed-content documents and therefore does not refer to systems in which users have the ability to substitute or alter documents after capture.

United States TC46 TAG members may "recommend" a United States vote and provide comments. The United States vote will be submitted by the TC171 US TAG (AIIM).

Voting deadline: October 2, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 42 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/FDIS 16245, Boxes, file covers and other enclosures, made from cellulosic materials, for storage

This ballot is for the final draft standard: ISO/FDIS 16245, Information and documentation — Boxes, file covers and other enclosures, made from cellulosic materials, for storage of paper and parchment documents.

This International Standard specifies requirements for boxes and file covers, made of cellulosic material, to be used for long term storage of documents on paper or parchment. It is applicable to boxes made of solid or corrugated board and to file covers made of paper or board. It can also be applicable to other types of enclosure for long term storage such as cases, portfolios, tubes and envelopes made of cellulosic material. It is NOT applicable to storage of photographic materials.

Voting deadline: October 16, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 39 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: Approval of nomination for new convenor of ISO TC46/SC4/WG12

This is a short turn-around one week ballot.

Christian Lupovici has indicated his intention to retire and resign from the role of convenor of Working Group 12. This Working Group has been retained to consider any updates and modifications to ISO 28500 WARC File Format until it has been subjected to revision.

In accordance with ISO/IEC Directives Part 1, Clause 1.12.1, the TC 46 SC 4 subcommittee is required to appoint Working Group convenors.

The enclosed ballot is to seek confirmation of Emmanuelle Bermes to replace Christian Lupovici in this role. Additional information about Ms. Bermes can be found in the referenced document for this ballot.

Please respond to the question, Do you agree to the appointment of Emmanuelle Bermes as convenor of Working Group 12?

Voting deadline: October 20, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 32 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: NWI Proposal: Simplified natural language - Part 1: Basic concepts and general principles (simpL-1)

This is a proposal from the liaison committee TC37/SC4 (Terminology and other language and content resources / Language resource management) for a new work item for a standard on Simplified natural language - Part 1: Basic concepts and general principles (simpL-1).

A copy of the proposal can be downloaded from the link in this email or from the ballot web page.

Since this is a liaison ballot, NISO can provide only a vote "recommendation" and comments. The US vote will be submitted by ASTM International, the US administrator for TC37.

We are also permitted to nominate an expert to participate on the WG, if the project is approved. If you would like to nominate someone, please include the name and contact information in your comments.

Voting deadline: November 11, 2009. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 38 percent of eligible voters voted, and 100 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: Systematic Review ISO 2789:2006

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 2789:2006, Information and documentation -- International library statistics.

This is the fourth edition of the International Standard that specifies rules for the library and information services community on the collection and reporting of statistics for the purposes of international reporting.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: December 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted REVISE/AMEND. Voting summary: 45 percent of eligible voters voted, 95 percent which did not abstain voted confirm, 1 percent voted revise/amend.

Note: Comments were provided to me by ALA’s Denise M. Davis and were passed along for NISO’s consideration.

Ballot title: Systematic Review ISO 12083:1994

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 12083:1994, Information and documentation -- Electronic manuscript preparation and markup.

This is the first edition of the International Standard that presents four document type definitions and additional facilities conforming to ISO 8879, Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: December 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted CONFIRM. Voting summary: 52 percent of eligible voters voted, 96 percent which did not abstain voted confirm, 1 percent voted revise/amend.

Ballot title: Systematic Review ISO 21127:2006

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 21127:2006, Information and documentation -- A reference ontology for the interchange of cultural heritage information.

It is the first edition of the standard that is intended to facilitate the exchange of information between cultural heritage institutions by defining a domain ontology for cultural heritage information.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: December 1, 2009. Result: ALA voted CONFIRM. Voting summary: 49 percent of eligible voters voted, 92 percent which did not abstain voted confirm, and 1 percent voted revise/amend.

Ballot title: AFNOR Appeal of ISO/DIS 26324, Digital object identifier system

This ballot is to obtain a United States position on the question: Do you support the AFNOR appeal [for ISO/DIS 26324, Digital object identifier system] based on the information provided in document ISO/TC 46 N2232?

Note: AFNOR is the French standards body -- equivalent to ANSI in the United States.

Your ballot options are: Yes (support the appeal); No (do not support the appeal), or Abstain.

NISO is recommending a NO vote on this ballot. Refer to Todd Carpenter's email sent separately to this group, which is included in this ballot as a reference document.

Additional reference documents relevant to this ballot that are also included are:

N2333 -- TC46 Secretariat's transmittal of the ballot asking the question regarding support for the AFNOR appeal
N2224 -- the original AFNOR appeal request.
N2331 -- the SC9 Secretariat and DOI working group convenor's response to the AFNOR appeal
N2332 -- AFNOR's supplemental materials for the appeal, submitted following the response from the SC9 Secretariat and DOI working group convenor

Voting deadline: January 13, 2010. Result: ALA voted NO. Voting summary: 41 percent of eligible voters voted, and 96 percent which did not abstain voted no.

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 24619, Persistent identification and access in language technology applications

This is a draft international standard ballot from the liaison committee TC37/SC4 (Terminology and other language and content resources / Language resource management) for ISO/DIS 24619, Language resource management — Persistent identification and access in language technology applications. This will be the first edition.

The scope of this International Standard is to present requirements when including resolvable persistent identifiers (PID) with references to and citations of language resources in documents as well as in language resources themselves. This standard addresses issues of persistence and granularity of references to resources, by first requiring that persistent references be implemented by using a PID framework and further imposing requirements on any PID frameworks used for this purpose.

Note that this standard makes reference to ISO 690-2 (bibliographic citations for electronic resources), which is in the process of revision and merger with 690-1. The standard at ballot also mentions its relationship to DOI, ARK, and PURL (among others). The ISO DOI System standard will be issued for a DIS ballot shortly. For the purposes of reviewing this standard at ballot (and only for that purpose), you may see the draft versions of the new ISO 690 standard and the DOI system standard using the links below. Please do not share or distribute copies of these drafts to anyone else as they have not yet been officially distributed by ISO for ballot.

A copy of the standard at ballot can be downloaded from the link in this email or from the ballot web page.

Since this is a liaison ballot, NISO can provide only a vote "recommendation" and comments. The United States vote will be submitted by ASTM International, the United States administrator for TC37.

Voting deadline: January 19, 2010. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 44 percent of eligible voters voted, and 94 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Ballot title: ISO/FDIS 690, Information and documentation — Guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources

This ballot is for the final draft standard, ISO/FDIS 690, Information and documentation — Guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources.

This International Standard gives guidelines for the preparation of bibliographic references. It is applicable to bibliographic references and citations to all kinds of information resources, including but not limited to monographs, serials, contributions, patents, cartographic materials, electronic information resources (including computer software and databases), music, recorded sound, prints, photographs, graphic and audiovisual works, and moving images. It is not applicable to machine-parsable citations. It is also not applicable to legal citations, which have their own standards. This will be the third edition of the standard merging and revising ISO 690:1987 and ISO 690-2:1997.

There were quite a few edits made between the previous draft and this one to address comments and particularly for consistency (especially in examples). Most of these were editorial, rather than substantive in nature. A link is provided in the ballot references to the final voting report for the previous draft which includes a response to all of the comments.

When voting and commenting keep in mind that at this final stage a "Yes" vote can only have editorial, non-substantive comments. If a sufficient number of Yes votes are obtained, the standard will proceed to publication.

Voting deadline: January 22, 2010. Result: ALA voted YES. Voting summary: 44 percent of eligible voters voted, and 91 percent which did not abstain voted yes.

Standards with Voting in Progress

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 26324, Digital object identifier system

This ballot is for the Draft International Standards, ISO/DIS 26324, Information and documentation — Digital object identifier system. This International Standard specifies the syntax, description and resolution functional components of the digital object identifier (DOI®) system, and the general principles for the creation, registration and administration of DOI names. This standard also describes how the DOI system can be used with existing ISO identification systems, including the provision of additional functionality (such as resolution) where this is not already available.

This may be your last opportunity to make substantive comments to this standard. If there is 100 percent approval, the standard can go directly to publication.

Voting deadline: February 19, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: ISO 3166-1:2006, Country codes

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 3166-1:2006, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions -- Part 1: Country codes.

This part of ISO 3166 establishes codes that represent the current names of countries, dependencies, and other areas of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of lists of country names obtained from the United Nations. It is intended for use in any application requiring the expression of current country names in coded form; it also includes basic guidelines for its implementation and maintenance.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This standard is managed differently from other ISO standards due to the ongoing changes to or additions of country codes. The maintenance agency regularly issues a newsletter with new or changed codes. Those codes are added to the standard's country code database and become usable when the newsletter is issued. So it is not necessary to revise the standard just to incorporate those new codes. The main reason for voting for a revision would be if the "principles" for establishing the codes, as defined in the standard, need to be changed or updated. There is already a corrigendum (correction supplement) for the standard, which is also included as a reference to this ballot. If the standard were to be revised, these corrections would be merged to the revision. For more information on the ISO 3166-1 standard and how it is managed, see this ISO web page.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Systematic Review IS0 11108:1996, Archival paper - Requirements for permanence and durability

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, IS0 11108:1996, Information and documentation - Archival paper - Requirements for permanence and durability.

This International Standard specifies the requirements for archival paper. It is applicable to unprinted papers intended for documents and publications required for permanent retention and frequent use. For these documents and publications, paper of high permanence and high durability is required.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Systematic Review IS0 9706:1994, Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, IS0 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence

The purpose of this International Standard is to provide a means of specifying and identifying paper that, according to the present state of knowledge, has a high degree of permanence and is likely to undergo little or no change in properties that influence readability and handling when stored in a protected environment for long periods of time.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Systematic Review IS0 9984:1996, Transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, IS0 9984:1996, Information and documentation - Transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters.

This International Standard establishes a system for the transliteration of Georgian characters into Latin characters in accordance with the principles of stringent conversion in order to permit international information exchange, particularly by electronic means.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Systematic Review ISO 233-3:1999, Transliteration of Persian characters into Latin characters

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 233-3:1999, Information and documentation — Transliteration of Arabic characters into Latin characters — Part 3: Persian language — Simplified transliteration

This part of ISO 233 establishes a simplified system for the transliteration of Persian characters into Latin characters. This simplification of the stringent rules established by ISO 233:1984 is especially intended to facilitate the processing of bibliographic information (e.g. catalogues, indices, citations, etc.).

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: Systematic Review ISO 10754:1996, Extension of the Cyrillic alphabet coded character set for ...

This is a systematic review ballot for the published standard, ISO 10754:1996, Information and documentation -- Extension of the Cyrillic alphabet coded character set for non-Slavic languages for bibliographic information interchange

This is version three of the standard that specifies a set of ninety-three graphic characters with their coded representations. It consists of a code table and a legend showing each graphic, its use and its name. Explanatory notes are also included. The character set is primarily intended for the interchange of information among data processing systems and within message transmission systems.

Your vote options are Confirm (as is), Revise/Amend, Withdraw (the standard), or Abstain (from the vote). Comments are required for all votes other than Confirm.

Voting deadline: March 1, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 27729, Information and documentation — International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI)

This ballot is for the Draft International Standard ISO/DIS 27729, Information and documentation — International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI), which specifies the International Standard name identifier (ISNI) for the identification of public identities of parties; that is, the identities used publicly by parties involved throughout the media content industries in the creation, production, management, and content distribution chains.

This may be your last opportunity to make substantive comments to this standard. If there is 100 percent approval, the standard can go directly to publication.

Voting deadline: March 2, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 25964-1, Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies — Part 1: Thesauri for inform

This ballot is for approval of the Draft International Standard ISO/DIS 25964-1, Information and documentation — Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies — Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval (Revision of ISO 2788:1986 and of ISO 5964:1985). This part of ISO 25964 gives recommendations for the development and maintenance of thesauri intended for information retrieval applications. The document also provides a data model and recommended format for import and export of thesaurus data. This part of this International Standard applies to monolingual and multilingual thesauri.

This may be your last opportunity to make substantive comments to this standard. If there is 100 percent approval, the standard can go directly to publication.

Voting deadline: March 12, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Ballot title: ISO/DIS 24616, Linguistic resources management — Multilingual information framework

This is a liaison ballot for ISO/DIS 24616, Linguistic resources management — Multilingual information framework.

This standard describes a metamodel and data categories for a Multilingual information framework (MLIF) that provides a generic platform for modeling and managing multilingual information in various domains: localization, translation, multimedia, document management, digital library, and information or business modeling applications. MLIF provides a metamodel and a set of generic data categories for various application domains. MLIF also provides strategies for the interoperability and/or linking of models including, but not limited to: XLIFF, TMX, SMILText and ITS.

This is a ballot for a standard developed by the ISO subcommittee on language resource management (TC37/SC4). As a liaison to this committee, we can only recommend a vote and supply comments. The U.S. vote on this standard will be submitted by ASTM International, the U.S. administrator for this committee.

Voting deadline: April 16, 2010. Result: ALA voted. Voting summary: not yet available.

Educational Activities

NISO has a very active education calendar. In addition to those webinars and in person meetings mentioned below, the organization has been holding monthly open teleconferences to provide information about new NISO project and to solicit feedback. Find NISO events, including links to registration online.

Webinars held in 2009

Digital Preservation
Single-Sign On (SSO) Authentication
Data Movement and Management
KBART and the OpenURL
COUNTER: A How-To Guide
COUNTER: New Applications of Data Usage
Library Systems and Interoperability: Breaking Down the Silos
E-Books: A Rapidly Evolving Marketplace
E-Resources Licensing (two parts)
Bibliographic Control Alphabet Soup
Data, Data Everywhere: Migration and System Population Practices
ONIX for Publication Licenses: Adding Structure to Legalese

Webinars slated for 2010

From ILS to Repository and Back: Data Interoperability (January 13)
What It Takes To Make It Last: E-Resources Preservation (February 10)
- Identifiers: New Problems, New Solutions, Pt. 1: What’s in a Name? Latest Developments in Identifiers (March 10)
- Identifiers: New Problems, New Solutions, Pt. 2: Content Identification: What’s New with ISO Identifiers, ISBN, and ISTC (March 17)
RFID in Libraries: Standards and Expanding Use (April 14)
It’s in the Mail: Best Practices for Resource Sharing (May 12)
Show Me the Data: Managing Data Sets for Scholarly Content (August 11)
- Measuring Use, Assessing Success, Pt. 1: Measure, Assess, Improve, Repeat: Using Library Performance Metrics (September 8)
- Measuring Use, Assessing Success, Pt. 2: Count Me In: Measuring Individual Item Usage (September 15)
It’s Only as Good as the Metadata: Improving OpenURL and Knowledgebase Quality (October 13)
The Case of the Disappearing Journal: Solving the Title Transfer and Online Display Mystery (November 10)
Unprecedented Interaction: Providing Accessibility for the Disabled (December 8)

In-person events held in 2009

Performance Measures and Assessment: Critical Tools During Challenging Times (Baltimore, June 1)
Library Resource Management Systems: New Challenges, New Opportunities (Boston, October 8-9)

In-person events slated for 2010

Discovery to Delivery: Creating a First-Class User Experience (Atlanta, March 23)
E-Resource Management: From Start to Finish (and Back Again) (Chicago, October 7)

Miscellaneous

NISO’s monthly newsletter, Newsline, is free and can be accessed online. Issues from 2008–2010 are available.

A list of current, and of some recently withdrawn, NISO standards can be found online. ANSI/NISO standards can be purchased in hardcopy and are available for free download.

A PowerPoint overview of the NISO standards development process and the standards development timeline are available online.

ISO standards are not available online for free downloads. Information about the International Organization for Standardization, including the ISO store and a list of ISO standards, can be found online.