National Information Standards Organization

For the genus of parasitic sea snails, see Niso.
National Information Standards Organization
Abbreviation NISO
Formation June 22, 1939[1]
Purpose National standards
Headquarters Baltimore, Maryland
Membership
112 organizations[2]
Official language
English
Website www.niso.org

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.[3] Voting members elect Directors and comment and vote on standards.[4]

The "Library Standards Alliance" included 101 members, primarily university and large public libraries.[3] Library members receive access to NISO webinars and Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ), NISO's magazine.[5] Information Standards Quarterly is available online via Open Access.[6]

Todd Carpenter was appointed Executive Director of NISO in 2006.[7] 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:

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

  1. National Information Standards Organization (NISO) archives > ArchivesUM
  2. Members - National Information Standards Organization
  3. 3.0 3.1 "Membership", NISO website (last visited June 24, 2013).
  4. "Membership", NISO website (last visited June 24, 2013).
  5. "Library Standards Alliance", NISO (last visited June 24, 2013)
  6. "ISQ" is available free of charge
  7. "NISO Names Todd Carpenter Managing Director" in Library Journal, August 28, 2006 http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2006/08/ljarchives/niso-names-todd-carpenter-managing-director/
  8. Charen T, Gillespie CJ. (July 1971). "MEDLARS abbreviations for medical journal titles" 59 (3). pp. 420–9. PMID 5146764.

External links