Making Progress, Even While Enjoying Some Downtime
For much of this year, it has been difficult to maintain focus on anything but the big headline-making topics of international trade, politics, and budget cuts in Washington, and their impact on our own community. Other important developments, particularly in technology (especially artificial intelligence) and copyright, have directly impacted publishers, libraries, and systems developers, further consuming attention and resources.
In the best of times, the work of information distribution and standards development are far from being headline-grabbing activities. Drawing attention to standards-related work, despite its value and importance, can be challenging at the best of times. So, while I hope those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are enjoying a slightly slower pace over the summer and perhaps even distracting yourselves from as much as possible, let me intrude by drawing some attention to some things you may have missed
Several NISO initiatives are moving toward milestones in their development processes. The Collaborative Collections Lifecycle Project, a joint project of more than 60 participating organizations led by NISO, PALCI, and Lehigh University, is preparing a draft of its recommended practice for public comment. The goal of this recommendation is to support collective library action to improve efficient deployment of resources across institutions. The recommendations cover everything from selection and acquisitions to metadata and governance. We hope the draft for public comment will be available by the end of August.
Similarly, the Open Access Business Processes working group is putting finishing touches on their recommended practice for public comment as well. This project seeks to standardize the implementation of financial transactions, compliance tracking with different policies, and related workflows that support OA publication. With an ever-increasing percentage of research content being published in open formats, developing standard business practices for managing the business operations of OA will improve user experience, reduce costs, and ensure greater compliance with funder and institutional mandates. Again, the expectation is a draft will be available before the end of the summer.
Last month, ISO published the International Workshop Agreement Global Media Identifier (GMI) for distribution channels and brands. As the agreement details, the aim of the GMI is “to establish source identity, for example, between channels operated by the same editorial unit across platforms, news media websites and their social media presence. Such an interoperable system of GMIs is crucial to safeguarding the integrity of news and information ecosystems, which is relevant when publishing, accessing, and managing content online.” An International Workshop Agreement is ISO’s lowest-level consensus document, without requirements or expectations, but it can be used as a springboard for further development. This process has begun within the ISO Technical Subcommittee on Identification and Description (ISO TC 46/SC 9), which NISO manages as secretariat, and a new work item ballot is currently being circulated to adapt the IWA into a formal ISO standard. Additionally, prototype development work to create a system based around the GMI model has begun by the Global Media Registry, a nonprofit that supports transparency, accountability, and pluralism in the digital information space. US-based members of NISO are encouraged to vote on the new work item (member login required) before the ballot closes on August 12.
Looking forward to September, NISO will also participate in two ISO plenary meetings where we represent US interests. The first plenary meeting of the newly formed Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage Conservation (TC 349) is taking place in Beijing in mid-September. As the Committee begins implementing its business plan, there will be a robust conversation about which projects should get off the ground first and how they will be organized. NISO will also represent US interests at the next plenary meeting of the Joint Technical Committee on Information Technology (JTC 1) Subcommittee on Document Description and Processing Languages (JTC 1/SC 34) in September as well. The focus of the meeting will be on ongoing maintenance and development work related to the Office Open XML standard and development of an archiving version of the EPUB standard.
Of course, there are important discussions about artificial intelligence, accessibility, and developing regulations that will continue to demand our attention. Last month, we conducted a feedback survey of potential work related to AI systems, which the NISO leadership committees are reviewing. Next month, we will likely make some announcements about AI-related standards work to move forward this fall. There is also of course the schedule of events that NISO is hosting from August through the end of the year. Leading this is the NISO Plus Global/Online virtual conference taking place on September 17–18. Community-led discussions of challenges in information are a feature of this online-only event, so if you’d like to join us, register soon— early-bird registration ends on August 15. Finally, our fall schedule of events, including our monthly webinars and upcoming AI training series, is available and looks incredible. As a reminder, all the monthly webinars NISO produces are included for free with your NISO membership.
I hope you all enjoy the last days of summer and are ready to return for a busy fall of standards development, educational opportunities, and technology advances.
Sincerely,
Todd Carpenter
Executive Director
