The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is a United States non-profit standards organization that develops, maintains and publishes technical standards related to publishing, bibliographic and library applications. It was founded in 1939, incorporated as a not-for-profit education association in 1983, and assumed its current name in 1984.
NISO organization
NISO offers two membership categories, "voting members" and "library standards alliance". In 2013, the "voting members" included 69 large corporations, mostly publishers, and large library organizations such as the American Library Association. Voting members elect Directors and comment and vote on standards.
The "Library Standards Alliance" included 101 members, primarily university and large public libraries. Library members receive access to NISO webinars and Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ), NISO's magazine. Information Standards Quarterly is available online via Open Access.
The Todd Carpenter was appointed Executive Director of NISO in 2006. For the 2013-2014 term, Heather Reid, from the Copyright Clearance Center, is Chair of NISO, and Gerry Grenier from IEEE, is Vice Chair, transitioning into Chair in 2014-2015.
NISO work
NISO is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is designated by ANSI to represent U.S. interests to the International Organization for Standardization's Technical Committee 46 (Information and Documentation). In 2008, NISO was appointed Secretariat on behalf of ANSI for the TC 46 Subcommittee 9 (TC 46/SC 9) - Identification and Description.
NISO approved standards are published by ANSI. Unlike most other ANSI standards, all of NISO standards and best practices are freely available from its web site.
Designations (names) of NISO standards all start with "ANSI/NISO Z39." (read zee or zed thirty nine dot).
Examples of NISO standards include:
- Z39.2 (MARC standards for bibliographic records)
- Z39.29-2005 (R2010) (Bibliographic References)
- Z39.5 (journal title abbreviations, resulting in the 1969 publication of the American National Standard for the Abbreviation of Titles of Periodicals)
- Z39.50 (a protocol for accessing bibliographic databases)
- Z39.83 (Circulation Interchange Protocol for library catalogue data exchange)
- Z39.84 (Digital object identifier)
- Z39.86 (Specifications for the Digital Talking Book: DAISY Digital Accessible Information SYstem)
- Z39.87 (Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images - MIX)
- Z39.88 (OpenURL)
In addition to formal standards, NISO also publishes recommended practices, technical reports and other consensus documents, and offers continuing education for librarians and information professionals.
References
External links
- Official website
