Karen Wetzel Joins NISO as Standards Program Manager

BETHESDA, MD - January 17, 2007 - The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) has announced that Karen A. Wetzel will serve as NISO's first Standards Program Manager, effective January 22, 2007. In this role, Wetzel will manage the process of standards development, oversee activities of the technical committees creating NISO standards, and organize outreach and education programs related to those standards.
Wetzel comes to NISO with a strong background in project management in the library world. As Distance Education Librarian at The George Washington University's Gelman Library System, she developed and directed a library services program for the university's distance education community. Previously, she worked with the National Association of Federal Credit Unions as Associate Director of Education, where she developed, coordinated, and managed various learning programs, and with the Association of Research Libraries, where she managed the association's distance learning initiative in the Office of Leadership and Management Services.

"Karen's experience and skills add tremendously to our ability to serve NISO members," said Todd Carpenter, NISO's Managing Director. "Among its many recommendations, the NISO 'Blue Ribbon' Strategic Planning panel strongly recommended the addition of staff resources to oversee the standards process and this new position will help facilitate NISO's development activities. Particularly critical will be Karen's ability to organize and create outreach programs in the community."

About the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)

NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators and other organizations that support learning, research and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire life cycle of an information standard. NISO (www.niso.org) is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org.