NISO Responds to the COVID-19 Outbreak

Message from the Executive Director, March 19, 2020

The information community as a whole is feeling the pressure of delivering services during the current health crisis created by the presence of COVID-19. Like so many others, NISO staff are working to support our members as they ensure access to information resources and the rapid distribution of knowledge. At the same time, we realize the importance of maintaining good practices with regard to preserving everyone’s health.

We want to share with you decisions we have made in this respect:

1. NISO staff is practicing social distancing. We are already a partially virtual organization, and the NISO office is now more lightly staffed, which means that  we may be unable to respond to you as quickly as normal. We do, however, encourage you to email us at nisohq@niso.org with any questions or problems that arise.

2. Many of our ordinary operations are accomplished virtually; working group activities, as one example, will continue as usual through virtual meetings and conference calls. 

3. We will continue our program of educational events as scheduled. As always, these are recorded for asynchronous viewing. In addition, NISO is supporting additional log-ins for members on request, to enable your staff to participate from wherever they’re working. 

4. All NISO in-person events are postponed until the fall or until such time as gatherings of 10 or more individuals are once again permitted. 

NISO appreciates the opportunity to continue to work with our community in supporting those who produce and deliver important and timely information services and resources to researchers and other users around the globe. Please help us highlight your efforts on this newly created COVID-19 responses web page.

Todd Carpenter
Executive Director, NISO