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A PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL INFORMATION STANDARDS ORGANIZATION
Contents
Standards: The Global Dimension 1
What Is ISO? 2
The First 50 Years of ISO/TC 46 4
The Structure of ISO/TC 46 7
ISO/TC 46 Reports 8
IISP Meeting Report 15
NISO News and Notes:
NISO Balloting Calendar NISO Meeting Calendar International Update NISO Elects New Members to
Board of Directors New Members Join Standards
Development Committee 17
17
17
17
18
Standards Status: July 1, 1997 19
NISO Press News 20
Next Issue Deadline: September 1, 1997
Volume 9
Number 3
ISSN 1041-0031
July 1997
11 11 11
1041-0031 (199707 9 3 1-2
Standards:
The Global Dimension
This issue of ISQ focuses on international standards and
features a report on the 1997 meetings of TC 46, NISO's
counterpart at the international level. We begin with an introduction to international standards, including a detailed overview
of the mission and program of the International Organization for
Standardization. A capsule history of Technical Committee 46,
prepared by George Richardson to commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of the founding of TC 46, details the development of
the TC. Reports on the work now-in-progress in TC 46 will bring
you up to date on the TC's activities.
International Standards:
The How and Why
As a result of NISO's participation in ANSI, NISO has a direct
channel to the international standards development process. ANSI is the United States representative to the two
major nontreaty international standards organizations: The
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and The
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
In ISO the international standards development is carried
out by almost two hundred technical committees (TCs).
NISO is designated by ANSI as the official United States
representative to the work of ISO Technical Committee 46
on Information and Documentation. NISO also serves as the
administrator of the United States Technical Advisory Group
(TAG) to ISO TC 46. NISO provides United States representation to TC 46 meetings, reviews all TC 46 draft standards,
and recommends to ANSI the United States voting position
for these standards.
Even if you have been active in ISO for many years,
there is something to learn, because ISO has not been
static. Today ISO must recognize and deal with regional
partners and must maintain liaisons with more than
500 international and regional organizations. The
following overview is a good starting point, and
offers an excellent foundation prior to reading the
reports on the most recent meeting of TC 46. More
information about ISO can be obtained online by
visiting http://www.iso.ch/
ISO's Name
Because the name of the International Organization for
Standardization would have different abbreviations in different languages (10S in English, OIN in French), it was decided
to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal."
Therefore, the short form of the Organization's name is
always ISO.
Adapted from the ISO booklet "ISO in Brief"
How It Started
What is ISO?
International standardization began in the electrotechnical
field: the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
was established in 1906. Pioneering work in other fields was
carried out by the International Federation of the National
Standardizing Associations (ISA), which was set up in 1926.
The emphasis within ISA was on mechanical engineering.
ISA's activities came to an end in 1942.
In 1946, delegates from 25 countries met in London and
decided to create a new international organization, of which
the object would be "to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards." The new organization, ISO, officially began operating on February 23, 1947.
ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. It is made up of national standards institutes from
countries large and small, industrialized and developing, in all regions of the world. ISO develops voluntary
technical standards which add value to all types of
business operations. They contribute to making the
development, manufacturing and supply of products
and services more efficient, safer and cleaner. They
make trade between countries easier and fairer. ISO
standards also safeguard consumers, and users in general, of products and services—as well as making their
lives simpler.
ISO develops only those standards which are required by the market. This work is carried out by experts
on loan from the industrial, technical and business
sectors which have asked for the standards, and which
subsequently put them to use. These experts may be
joined by others with relevant knowledge, such as
representatives of government agencies and testing
laboratories.
ISO standards represent an international consensus on
the "state of the art" in the technology concerned.
Information Standards Quarterly (ISSN 1041-0031) is
published quarterly by the National Information Standards
Organization, 4733 Bethesda Avenue, Bethesda, MD
20814 USA. Voice: 301-654-2512, fax: 301-654-1721,
[email protected] . Joel H Baron, Chair; Patricia Harris,
Executive Director.
Opinions expressed in signed articles and columns are
those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the
opinions of NISO or the staff of Information Standards
Quarterly. Editorial contributions, articles, news releases,
and letters should be sent to: Patricia Harris, Executive
Director, NISO, at the above address.
ISQ is sent free of charge to members of NISO. Nonmembers may subscribe for $75 per year U.S., $115 foreign.
Subscription requests, requests for back issues, and change
of address forms should be sent to: NISO, P.O. Box 338,
Oxon Hill, MD 20750-0338, voice: 301-567-9522, fax: 301567-9553.
Copyright © 1997 National Information Standards Organization. All materials in this publication subject to copyright
by the National Information Standards Organization may be
photocopied for the noncommercial purpose of scientific or
educational advancement granted by Sections 107 and 108
of the Copyright Revision Act of 1976. For other reprinting,
photocopying, or translating, address requests to the National Information Standards Organization.
Non governmental
-
ISO currently has some 120 member organizations on the
basis of one member per country. ISO is a non-governmental
organization and its members are not national governments,
but are the standards institutes in their respective countries.
The official U.S. member is the American National Standards
Institute.
Equal Partnership
Every participating member has the right to take part in the
development of any standard which it judges to be important
to its country's economy. No matter what the size or strength
of that economy, each participating member in ISO has one
vote. ISO's activities are thus carried out in a democratic
framework where each country is able to influence the
direction of ISO's work at the strategic level, as well as the
technical content of its individual standards.
Voluntary
ISO standards are voluntary. ISO does not enforce their
implementation. A certain percentage of ISO standards —
mainly those concerned with health, safety or the environment — has been adopted in some countries as part of their
regulatory framework, or is referred to in legislation for which
it serves as the technical basis. However, such adoptions are
sovereign decisions by the regulatory authorities or governments of the countries concerned. ISO itself does not
regulate or legislate.
Market driven
-
ISO standards are market-driven. They are developed by
international consensus among experts drawn from the
industrial, technical and business sectors that have expressed the need for a particular standard. Other participants
may include representatives from government, regulatory
authorities, testing bodies, academia, consumer groups or
other relevant bodies.
Consensus
adoption of Z39.50-1995) allow computers from different
Although ISO standards are voluntary, the fact that they
are developed in response to market demand, and are
based on consensus among the interested parties, ensures widespread use of the standards.
vendors to "talk" to each other. Standardized documents
speed up the transit of goods, or identify sensitive or dangerous cargoes that may be handled by people speaking different languages. Standardization of connections and interfaces of all types ensures the compatibility of equipment
of diverse origins and the interoperability of different
Worldwide
ISO standards are technical agreements which provide
the framework for compatible technology worldwide.
Developing technical consensus on this international scale is
a major operation. It is estimated that every working day of
the year, there are 12 to 15 meetings around the world of ISO
technical groups in which the standards development work
is actually carried out. In all, there are more than 2,850 of
these groups in which some 30,000 experts participate
annually. This technical work is coordinated from ISO Central
Secretariat in Geneva, which also publishes the standards.
Quantity and Quality
technologies.
Agreement on test methods allows meaningful comparisons of products, or plays an important part in controlling
pollution — whether by noise, vibration or emissions.
Without the international agreement contained in ISO
standards on quantities and units, shipping and trade would
be haphazard and technological development would be
handicapped.
Tens of thousands of businesses in more than 90 countries are implementing ISO 9000 (Quality Assurance) which
provides a framework for quality management and quality
assurance throughout the processes of producing and deliv-
Since 1947, ISO has published more than 10,700 International Standards. ISO's work program ranges from standards
for traditional activities, such as agriculture and construction,
ering products and services to the customer.
through mechanical engineering to the newest information
technology developments, such as the digital coding of
audio-visual signals for multimedia applications. Following
are some important examples of the impact of ISO standards.
Standardization of screw threads helps to keep chairs,
children's bicycles and aircraft together and solves the repair
and maintenance problems caused by a lack of standardization that were once a major headache for manufacturers and
product users. Standards establishing an international consensus on terminology make technology transfer easier and
can represent an important stage in the advancement of new
technologies.
ISO's job is to develop standards. It does not verify that ISO
standards are being implemented by users in conformity
with the requirements of the standards. Conformity assessment — as this verification process is known — is a matter
for suppliers and their clients in the private sector, and of
regulatory bodies when ISO standards have been incorpo-
Without the standardized dimensions of freight containers, international trade would be slower and more expensive.
Without the standardization of telephone and banking cards,
life would be more complicated. A lack of standardization
may even affect the quality of life itself: for the disabled, for
example, when they are barred access to consumer products, public transport and buildings because the dimensions
of wheelchairs and entrances are not standardized.
Standardized symbols provide danger warnings and
information across linguistic frontiers. Consensus on
grades of various materials give a common reference for
suppliers and clients in business dealings.
Agreement on the number of variations of a product to
meet current applications allows economies of scale with
cost benefits for both producers and consumers. An
example is the standardization of paper sizes.
Standardization of performance or safety requirements
of diverse equipment makes sure that users' needs are
met while allowing individual manufacturers the freedom
to design their own solution on how to meet those needs.
Consumers then have a choice of products which meet
basic requirements and can benefit from the competition
among manufacturers.
Standardized protocols such as ISO 23950 (an ISO
Conformity Assessment
rated into public legislation.
In addition, there exist many testing laboratories and
auditing bodies which offer independent (also known as
"third party") conformity assessment services to verify that
products, services or systems measure up to ISO standards.
Such organizations may perform these services under a
mandate to a regulatory authority, or as a commercial activity
of which the aim is to create confidence between suppliers
and their clients.
What ISO does is develop ISO/IEC Guides covering
various aspects of conformity assessment activities and the
organizations that perform them. The voluntary criteria contained in these Guides represent an international consensus
on what constitutes acceptable practice. Their use contributes to the consistency and coherence of conformity assessment worldwide and so facilitates trade across borders.
Certification
When a product, service, or system has been assessed by a
competent authority as conforming to the requirements of a
relevant standard, a certificate may be issued as proof. For
example, many thousands of ISO 9000 certificates have
been issued to businesses around the world attesting to the
fact that a quality management system operated by the
company concerned conforms to one of the ISO 9000
standards. Likewise, more and more companies can be
expected to seek certification of their environmental management systems, following the publication of the first
standards in the ISO 14000 family. ISO itself does not assess
quality or environmental management systems and it does
not issue either ISO 9000 or ISO 14000 certificates.
However, ISO has been sensitive to the need of ISO
9000 users for "one-stop certification." With the IEC, and
the International Accreditation Forum (IAF), it is working
toward the establishment of a voluntary program, known as
QSAR (Quality System Assessment Recognition), to encourage the worldwide recognition of ISO 9000 certificates so
that certification represents a one-time investment.
International Partnerships
ISO collaborates with its partners in international standardization, the IEC, whose scope of activities complements ISO's. In turn, ISO and IEC cooperate on a joint
basis with the ITU (International Telecommunication
Union). Like ISO, the IEC is a non-governmental body. The
ITU is part of the United Nations Organization and its
members are governments. The three organizations have
a strong collaboration on standardization in the fields of
information technology and telecommunications.
World Trade
ISO — together with IEC and ITU — is building a strategic
partnership with the World Trade Organization (WTO)
with the common goal of promoting a free and fair global
trading system. The political agreements reached within
the framework of the WTO require underpinning by technical agreements. ISO, IEC and ITU, as the three principal
organizations in international standardization, have the
complementary scopes, the framework, the expertise
and the experience to provide this technical support for
the growth of the global market.
Regional Partners
Many of ISO's members also belong to regional standardization organizations. This makes it easier for ISO to build
bridges with regional standardization activities throughout
the world. ISO has recognized regional standards organizations representing Africa, the Arab countries, the area
covered by the Commonwealth of Independent States,
Europe, Latin America, the Pacific area, and the SouthEast Asia nations. These recognitions are based on a
commitment by the regional bodies to adopt ISO standards — whenever possible without change — as the
national standards of their members and to initiate the
development of divergent standards only if no appropriate
ISO standards are available for direct adoption.
Specialist Liaisons
ISO also liaises with some 550 international and regional
organizations interested in aspects of ISO's standardization work. These include the 18 or so international standards-developing bodies outside the ISO/IEC system.
Each of these bodies works in a specific area, usually with
a United National mandate; an example is the World
Health Organization. ISO and the IEC together produce
about 85% of all International Standards, and these other
specialized bodies account for the rest.
Summary
ISO standards are market-driven. They are developed on
the basis of international consensus among experts from
the sector which has expressed a requirement for a
particular standard. Since ISO standards are voluntary,
they are used to the extent that people find them useful.
The First 50 Years of
ISO/TC 46: 1947-1997
A short history compiled by George Richardson
Origins
In 1947, the same year that our parent, the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), was established, a
group of documentation experts met in Paris to discuss
how to broaden their activities and influence. These experts were mainly from Europe, and they sat on a number
of existing documentation committees, including the International Federation of National Standardization Associations (ISA), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and the International Federation for
Documentation (FID). In Paris, for five days (April 26-30,
1947), they discussed how they could come together within
ISO to form what is now Technical Committee (TC) 46.
The Terms of Reference for TC 46, Documentation,
and the program of work agreed to at that first meeting
were "to prepare recommendations for:
• General directives for the indicating of literary titles,
bibliographic references and the like
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Presentation of periodicals
Abbreviation of titles of periodicals
Transliteration of Cyrillic characters
Photocopies. Sizes and quality
Microcopies. Sizes and quality
Reading apparatus for micro-reproduction
Terminology in the field of documentary reproduction
Sizes of cards and other forms for documentary
purposes."
A number of these proposals had been earlier projects of
ISA, which included a forerunner to TC 46 in ISA/46.
Who Were The Founding Members?
The main initiative to form TC 46 came from the Netherlands, which had been closely connected with FID. At the
Paris meeting, the Secretariat of TC 46 was accepted by
the Hoofdcommissie voor Normalisatie in Nederland
(HCNN), the national body in the Netherlands responsible
for standardization, and administered by the Nederlandsch
lnstituut voor Documentatie en Registratuur (NIDER). The
Netherlands held the Secretariat until 1964.
The delegates who attended the second meeting of TC
46, hosted by the Netherlands Patent Office in The Hague
(June 17-19, 1948), were welcomed by the President of
HCNN, Mr. Donker Duyvis. He proposed, and the delegates accepted, the nomination of Dr. N. A J. Voorhoeve,
from the Netherlands, as Chairman of the meeting.
At this meeting TC 46 created three subcommittees:
Photographic Subjects
Transliteration of Cyrillic Characters
Presentation of Periodicals.
In addition to France, hosts of the first meeting, and the
Netherlands, who were the first holders of the Secretariat,
Czechoslovakia was a founding member. We know this
because one of their representatives, Dr. A Sevacik,
presented an initial new work item, Transliteration of
Cyrillic Characters, to the Committee. In addition, his name
appears as a member of the subcommittee established at
the meeting in The Hague. Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
Deutsches Institut fur Normung [DIN]) was named Secretariat for TC 46. Mrs. Johanna Eggert served as Secretary
until her retirement in 1986. She was succeeded by Mrs.
Eva-Maria Baxmann-Krafft in 1987. Mrs. Edith Lechner
Hungary, India, Palestine, Sweden, Switzerland, and the
United Kingdom were also among the founders of TC 46.
By 1950, they had been joined by other new "P" or active
members: Austria, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Union of South
Africa, and United States of America. To the active participants were added what are now known as "0" (Observor)
members: Australia, Chile, The People's Republic of China,
Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania,
Uruguay, USSR, and Yugoslavia. By 1953 the Federal Republic of Germany, Pakistan and Spain were added to the roster.
In the early years of TC 46, the work program was
was appointed Secretary in 1993.
handled by ad hoc working parties, and one subcommittee, SC I (Documentary reproduction). The Secretariat of
TC 46 supported the working parties and France, which
held the Secretariat of SC 1, provided the necessary
support to the subcommittee.
The program of work drawn up at the Paris meeting
soon produced the first ISO Recommendation: ISO/R4
In 1966, Singapore and the United Arab Republic joined
TC 46 as "0" members, to bring the total to 22 "P" members
and 17 "0" members. The program of work included revisions of two early Recommendations: ISO/R4 (Abbreviations
for titles of periodicals), and ISO/R9 (Transliteration of Cyrillic
characters). In that same year TC 46 was restructured into
two subcommittees and two working groups:
SC 1 Documentary reproduction (Secretariat, AFNOR,
France)
SC 2 Transliteration of written languages (Secretariat ,
USASI (now ANSI), USA)
WG 1 Bibliographic analysis
WG 2 Layout
The 1970s
The structure of TC 46 expanded in the 1970s, and in 1971,
there were three subcommittees and four working groups:
Documentary reproduction (Secretariat ,
SC 1
(International code for the abbreviation of titles of periodicals). It was published in March of 1954 (the first ISO
publication was produced in 1951), and it remains valid
today in its revised form as ISO 4. (Note: Beginning in 1980
AFNOR, France)
SC 2 Conversion of written languages (Secretariat ,
all "Recommendations" became "Standards" and the
"R" prefix was dropped.)
Sweden) (previously WG 4)
WG 1 International Standard Book/Serial Numbering
(Secretariat , BSI, United Kingdom)
WG 2 Representation and coding of country names
The 1960s
By 1963, the work was carried out by one Subcommittee
and three Working Groups:
SC 1
Documentary reproduction
WG 1
Bibliographical subjects
WG 2 Layout
WG 3
Transliteration.
In addition to ISO/R4, three drafts were under consideration and the following Recommendations were published:
ISO/R8, 1954
Layout of periodicals (produced by WG 2)
ISO/R9, 1954
ISO/R18, 1956
Transliteration of Cyrillic characters (WG 3)
Short contents list of periodicals (WG 1)
ISO/R30, 1956 Bibliographic strip (WG 1)
ISO/R77, 1959 Bibliographic references. Essential and
complementary elements (WG 1)
ISO/R169, 1960 Sizes of photocopies (on paper)
readable without optical devices (SC 1)
ISO/RI93, 1961 Microcopies on transparent bases: recommended bases. Dimensions (SC 1)
ISO/R214, 1961 Abstracts and synopses (WG 1)
ISO/R215, 1961 Presentation of contributions to
periodicals (WG 1)
ISO/R218, 1961 Reduction ratio of 35-mm microfilms
for international exchange of documents (SC 1)
ISO/R233, 1961 Transliteration of Arabic (WG 3)
ISO/R259, 1962 Transliteration of Hebrew (WG 3)
ISO/R260, 1962 Terminology of microcopies and their
bases (SC 1)
In 1964, Deutscher Normenausschuss (DNA) (now the
ANSI, USA)
SC 4 Automation in documentation (Secretariat, SIS,
(Secretariat , IGPAI, Portugal)
WG 3 Terminology of documentation (Secretariat ,
DNA, Federal Republic of Germany)
WG 5 Guidelines for thesauri (Secretariat, Leitstelle
Politische Dokumentation, Federal Republic of
Germany)
By 1972, two other working groups had been created:
WG 6, Bibliographic references, and WG 7, Presentation
of publications.
In 1974 at the Helsinki plenary meeting, a change to the
scope of TC 46 was suggested (but never formally agreed to):
Standardization in the fields of information, documentation, librarianship and related information handling, including information systems and interchange networks as
applied to those fields.
That proposal clearly indicates a change in emphasis
for the work program and perceived responsibilities at that
time, even though it was never adopted. At that plenary,
WG 3 became SC 3. The TC in 1974, had produced a total
of 45 Recommendations.
On 24 January 1977, the first meeting of the TC 46
Steering Committee (now the Advisory Group) was held in
Geneva. At that meeting, rules of procedure that addresses membership, voting, etc. were drafted. Participants also discussed the format for future plenary meetings. Some members favored holding subcommittee and
working group meetings during the same period, others
did not. After a letter ballot the decision was in favor of TC
46's current plenary format.
Further changes to the structure of TC 46 took place in
1975, when WG 7 became SC 7. Two years later WG 8
Compatibility standards for information networks was
created and WG 5 and WG 6 became subcommittees. In
1978, SC 1 became a new entirely separate technical
committee, TC 171, Micrographics.
At the 1979 plenary meeting, the role of the Steering
Committee was defined and clarified. It was agreed
that "the role of the Steering Committee between two
Plenary Meetings is to assist the Secretariat of ISO/TC
46 in applying the resolutions approved at the Plenary
Meetings, to achieve the least possible delay in the
The 1980s
By the early 1980s TC 46 had a large portfolio of
published ISO Standards and numerous drafts out for
comment including the third edition of its first publication, ISO/R4. The 1981 plenary was the first ISO Meeting to be hosted by the People's Republic of China. At
the Steering Committee meeting held in Cologne in
November of 1982, it was proposed that the committee's
name be changed to Advisory Group. The change was
agreed to and the new name first appeared at the 1983
plenary in Vienna. That plenary followed a meeting
format similar to that still in use today — a meeting of
to aid coordination between these subcommittees and
the Advisory Group at the start of the week, followed by
meetings of the sub-committees and working groups,
then the plenary meeting and a final Advisory Group
groups whose Chairmen or Secretaries take part in the
meetings of the Steering Committee." An election was
held and France, the Federal Republic of Germany,
Hungary, Poland and USA were elected to the Steering
Committee. WG 1 became SC 6 and its title changed to
Bibliographic data elements in manual and machine
processing.
meeting.
First approved at the London plenary in 1985, the
terms of reference, membership and procedures for
the Advisory Group are still in use. The Subcommittee
structure has been streamlined. A new SC 8 was set up
to consolidate the work of Working Groups 8, 9, and 11,
with its terms of reference given as "Standardization of
As a result of these organizational changes by the
end of the 1970s, TC 46 had the following structure:
the gathering of statistics needed for work in documentation". The Secretariat of SC 8 was awarded to United
work program of the various subcommittees and working groups, while respecting established priorities and
SC 2 Conversion of written languages
SC 3 Terminology of documentation
SC 4 Automation in documentation
SC 5 Guidelines for thesauri
SC 6 Bibliographic data elements in manual and
machine processing
SC 7 Presentation of publications
WG 2 Representation and coding of country names
WG 8 Compatibility standards for information
networks.
Over fifty Recommendations had been produced by
these committees and working groups by the end of the
1970s. In concert with these organizational changes,
the scope statement for TC 46 was revised. In October
1979, ISO Council approved the following scope:
Kingdom (BSI) which still serves in this capacity. WG 10
Establishment of indexes was established. The transfer
of the Secretariat of SC 4 to ANSI (USA), and the
appointment of Mrs. Sally McCallum as its permanent
chair was approved. A further revision was made to the
scope of SC 6 which now is "Standardization of bibliographic data elements for manual and automated systems, relating to:
•
including representation of content
•
This statement is still current in 1997. It could be
concluded (although this might never have been
intended) that this scope presents TC 46 as strongly
oriented towards applications and related functional
or performance standardization, rather than base
systems or specifications. In other words, TC 46 has
an emphasis on meeting user needs. The Steering
Committee met in Ohio, USA, in December of 1979
and proposed that TC 46 hold plenary meetings every
two years. The proposal was accepted and is the
current meeting pattern, alternating with a dedicated
meeting week for subcommittees and working groups
to convene.
establishment of groupings of data elements for
messages, references etc. "
Hans Jorn Reuss, Dansk Standard, was approved as
the permanent chair of SC 7. The final changes to the
structure of TC 46, which brings us to 1997 included:
•
Standardization of practices relating to
libraries, documentation and information
centers, indexing and abstracting services,
archives, information science and publishing.
definition and naming of bibliographic data elements
•
the creation in 1987 of SC 9 by combining SC 5, SC
6, and SC 7 with Canada serving as the Secretariat
the creation in 1988 of SC 10, with the secretariat of
the new subcommittee awarded to Denmark, and in
1989 the scope "Physical keeping of documents"
was approved.
A significant procedural change adopted at the 1987
Moscow plenary was agreement to use the newly
adopted ISO Fast-track Procedure for draft standards.
Another change proposed at the Moscow meeting and
approved by the ISO Technical Board later that year was
expanding the title of TC 46 "Documentation" to "Information and Documentation."
In 1989, at the Washington plenary, TC 46 approved
Ms. Verina Horsnell from the United Kingdom as the
permanent chair.
I
ISQ
THE STRUCTURE OF ISO/TC 46
Secretariat:
Scope
DIN/Germany
Standardization of practices relating to libraries,
documentation and information centers, indexing
and abstracting services, archives,
information science and publishing
Participating countries:
Observer countries:
30
31
Liaison: ISO/IEC JTC 1, JTC IISC 18, JTC I/SC 29,
JTC I/SC 30, ISO/TC 6,10, 37, 37/SC 2, 68, 68/SC 2,
68/SC 4, 154, 171
Group
Secretariat
AG
DIN/Germany
Advisory Group
WG 2
DIN/Germany
Coding of country names and related entities (ISO 3166)
SC 2
ELOT/Greece
Conversion of written languages
WG 3
SII/Israel
Transliteration of Hebrew
WG 4
AFNOR/France
Transliteration of Korean
WG 5
ELOT/Greece
Transliteration of Greek
Joint SC 2/SC 4 working group - Relations between transliteration and machine
WG 8
representations of characters
WG 9
TISI/Thailand
Transliteration of Thai
WG 10
MNCSM/Mongolia
Transliteration of Mongolian
WG 11
ISIRI/Iran
Transliteration of Persian
SC 3
ISIRI/Iran
Terminology of information and documentation
SC 4
ANSI/USA - NISO
Computer applications in information and documentation
WG I
ANSI/USA - NISO
Character sets
WG 4
ANSI/USA - NISO
Format structures for bibliographic information interchange in machine readable form
Commands for interactive search systems
WG 5
WG 6
ANSI/USA - NISO
Electronic publishing
WG 7
SAA/Australia
Data elements
WG 8
UNI/Italy
Library Codes
Joint TC 37/SC 2 - TC 46/SC 4 Working Group - Alpha-3 code for the representation of
Joint WG -
names of languages
SC 8
WG 4
Statistics and Performance Evaluation
BSI/United Kingdom
BSI/United Kingdom
SC 9
Performance indicators for libraries
SCC/Canada
Presentation, identification and description of documents
SC 10
DS/Denmark
Physical keeping of documents
WG I
SIS/Sweden
Permanence of paper for documents
WG 2
SIS/Sweden
Permanence of writing, printing and copying media on paper documents - Requirements
and testing methods
WG 3
DIN/Germany
DS/Denmark
WG 4
WG 5
GOSTR/Russia
Document storage requirements
Recommendation of binding materials and binding practices
Storage and handling of audio and video media
ISO/TC 46 Reports
The 1997 Plenary Meeting and Meeting Week of TC 46 were held at the BSI headquarters in London. The meetings were
hosted by the British Standards Institute (BSI) and were attended by more than 150 delegates from 30 countries.
The U.S. delegation to the 1997 TC 46 meetings included:
• Sally H. McCallum, Library of Congress (head of delegation)
• Randall K. Barry, Library of Congress
• Margaret Byrnes, National Library of Medicine
• Lenord Coral, Cornell University
• William Moyers, Caterpillar, Inc. • Albert Simmonds, R.R. Bowker
TC 46
Advisory Group Meeting
The Advisory Group of TC 46 met twice (May 12 and May
16) during the 1997 plenary meeting week in London. The
Group deals primarily with organizational issues and prepares recommendations for consideration at the TC 46
plenary session. Of significance were reports on:
The Fast Track ballot for the six-part standard concerning records management which was submitted by
Australia (ISO/DIS 15489) failed.
Parts 1-5 passed but Part 6 failed on this ballot, thus the
entire standard failed. Comments also indicated that the
standard does not conform to the ISO Directives, in
particular, there are references to country-specific legisla-
business team areas with a short life span to look into
topics, e.g., electronic commerce. JTC 1 is also developing strategies to implement information technology within
the committee to assist with its management and work.
A new Handbook of TC 46 standards, similar to those
produced in 1977, 1982, and 1988 will be published by ISO.
The Advisory Group recommended that the ISO Central Secretariat consider reducing the price of TC 46
standards on an experimental basis to determine if the
price reduction will increase sales (and therefore the
implementation) of these standards.
New members of the Advisory Group are Germany,
Italy and Australia, replacing Hungary, France and Sweden
who have completed their terms.
by Sally H. McCallum
tion and there are inconsistencies and duplication among
the parts. The ballot respondents noted that additional
information is needed for practices outside Australia,
since records management has different traditions in
different countries. ISO cannot standardize one country's
traditions. The representative from the International Council
of Archives (ICA) stated that ICA did not support the
standard in its present form, but ICA is willing to participate in a working group to review the standards. The
Advisory Group decided to hold an Ad Hoc meeting in July
1997, and will invite all who commented on the draft
international standard, the ICA, the Advisory Group, and a
representative from a records management group. The
participants will decide the course of action and draft a
charge for a working group if that is the route taken.
The Advisory Group has until July 16,1997 to comment
on a proposed new work item concerning the presentation and approach of technical manual documents which
is based on BSI standards.
The Advisory Group approved a new procedure for
International Registered Profiles that is less formal than
that for International Standardized Profiles. The profiles
relate to the Information Retrieval and Interlibrary Loan
computer protocols developed by TC 46.
The ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) has set
up a WG to bring CALS under the auspices of ISO. A report
was scheduled for June 1997. The meaning of the acronym has again changed, and CALS now stands for Commercial ... instead of the former "Computer" Aided Logistic Support.
ISO's Technical Committee for computers, ISO/IEC
JTC 1, is undergoing restructuring and is canceling many
work items. The committee is proposing to set up
TC 46/WG 2
Coding of Country Names
and Related Entities
WG 2 held two meetings (September 1995, and April
1996) prior to the May 13 and 14 meeting in London. ISO
3166-1 Country codes (update of ISO 3166, 1993) was
circulated for FDIS ballot after the meeting; this ballot
closes on July 29, 1997. Given the responses on the DIS,
the standard is expected to be approved and published in
August. The Internet has brought considerable attention
to the standard, because the alpha-2 code is used to
identify top-level domains. Chairman Roos cautioned that
if the standard is not updated and expanded to provide for
continents, grouping of countries, regional bodies, etc.
people will look elsewhere for assistance. Furthermore, if
the utility of the standard, especially for online services is
to continue, then ISO must publish the country code
elements on the World Wide Web and provide updates
electronically. According to the Maintenance Agency,
most customers would be willing to pay for such a service.
As for ISO/DIS 3166 Part 2 Country subdivision codes,
the comments were resolved, and a final document will be
prepared for ballot as an FDIS in 1998. The participants
also agreed that expert knowledge, different from that
needed for ISO 3166-1, is required, and a call will be
issued.
ISO/DIS 3166-3 Code for formerly used names of
countries will be issued in June; balloting on the DIS
closes on November 19, 1997.
Other issues before WG 2 included, the need for an
easy-to-use code to represent names of organizations and
a better understanding of country code needs by the
telecommunications sector. Recognizing that these activities are beyond the expertise of the current committee,
Chairman Roos and the Secretariat will contact the ISO
Central Secretariat for assistance. Chairman Roos and
Ms. Peter will establish contact with ITU-T Study Group 7
to determine their need for code elements. The members
agreed to establish a liaison with JTC 1/SC 31 and to
provide a brief description of the work items within the
London. SC 4 issued a call for a new convener in March
1997. In the interim, use of ISO 12083 (Preparation of
Electronic Manuscripts), an implementation of SGML
(ISO 8879) continues to expand. The new convener, when
in place, we be responsible for seeing to it that the
Working Group finds a maintenance agency for the standard and provides continuing support for the standard. It
Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea (South), Poland, Russia,
has been suggested that an ISO 12083 Users' Group be
set up along with a permanent ISO 12083 Web site.
Working Group 7 (Data Elements) reported on its work
on ISO/DIS 8459-4. It will be circulated for FDIS ballot after
final editorial corrections are incorporated. Work on ISO
8459-6 (Cataloging data elements) was postponed until
the completion of ISO 23950. Work on Part 5 was deferred
until all of the other parts are consolidated, at which time
the rules contained in part 6 might be simply included in
the Introduction.
London was the venue for the first meeting of Working
Group 8 (Library Codes), where the main item of discussion was the new work item to develop an international
Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
standard identifier for libraries and other organizations.
purview of WG 2 and its intended activities regarding
SC 31.
by William Moyers
Report on the Plenary Meeting of
ISO/TC46/SC4
The May 1997 plenary meeting of ISO TC 46, SC 4
(Computer applications in information and documentation) was attended by 28 delegates from 15 countries:
Australia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France,
Reports were made from all the active working groups
The structural components for the standard identifier
within SC 4, many of which have been rather active since
the last plenary meeting. Working Group 1 (Character
Sets), reported that all eight recently approved character
set standards developed by its delegates have now been
published. Printed copies were forwarded to the SC 4
secretariat in early March. The publication of the following
character sets: ISO 10585 (Armenian), ISO 10586 (Geor-
were described and recommendations were made to
make the structure of the proposed identifier more flexible to accommodate the many existing national standards
already in use. The working draft will be circulated for CD
ballot after incorporation of the modifications agreed upon
by the delegates at the London meeting.
The TC 46/SC 4-TC 37, SC 2 Joint Working Group on
gian), ISO 11822 (Extended Arabic), ISO 10754 (Extended
Cyrillic for non-slavic languages), ISO 6426-2 (Extended
Language Codes did not meet in London but a report was
submitted by the convener announcing the passage, by a
narrow margin, of ISO 639-2 (Three-character language
codes). A large number of comments were submitted but
Latin Part 2 for obscure languages and obsolete typography), ISO 6861 (Glagolitic), ISO 8957 (Hebrew), and ISO
6862 (Mathematics) will allow WG1 to focus its efforts on
many are editorial and apply only to the French translation
the identification of subsets of ISO 10646 (Universal
Coded Character Set-U CS). WG1 plans to identify subsets
that relate to existing SC4 character set standards. The
absence in ISO 10646 of some characters from SC4
standards resulted in 1992 in the drafting of various
comments and liaison reports to ISO-IEC JTCl/SC2/WG2,
the group that developed ISO 10646.
of the draft standard. It is thought that some comments
will be best handled by the Registration Authority after the
WG 1 also reported on the reaffirmation of three
other SC 4 character sets, ISO 5427 (Extended Cyrillic),
ISO 5428 (Greek), and ISO 6630 (Bibliographic Control
Characters).
The convener of Working Group 4 (Format Structure)
reported on the approval of DIS 23950, the Information
Retrieval protocol, which was balloted according to the
TC46 "fast track" procedure. This standard information
retrieval protocol existed earlier as a U.S. standard, ANSI/
NISO Z39.50. With the publication of ISO 23950, two
existing ISO standards, ISO 10162 and ISO 10163, will no
longer be needed and will be withdrawn. The ILL protocol
standards, ISO 10160 and ISO 10161-1 have been revised
to include the amendment approved in 1995 and the 23
defect reports approved by SC4 over the past 3 years. The
National Library of Canada has offered to serve as Maintenance Agency for these standards.
Working Group 6 (Electronic Publishing) did not meet in
standard is completed.
After discussion of standards in progress, it was
reported that a new work item will be submitted for
standardization of the document headers for the electronically exchanged documents that were developed
as part of the GEDI (Generalized Electronic Data Interchange) project. This EU project is international in scope.
The implementors will be submitting the appropriate
forms in the near future.
By Randall K. Barry
TC 46/SC 4/WG 4
Format Structures and Protocols
Following the plan established by WG 4, ANSI/NISO
Z39.50-1995 was submitted for ISO Fast Track ballot in
1996. The ballot closed in December 1996 with no
negative votes. The WG met in early April 1997 to
resolve the ballot comments and to plan the next steps.
The ISO number for the new Information retrieval (IR)
protocol standard is ISO 23950. ISO will, when the FDIS
ballot is complete, withdraw the ISO Search and retrieval standards, ISO 10162 and 10163, which parallel
Z39.50.
ISO 10160 and 10161, (Interlibrary Loan (ILL), protocols) will be published in a new version in 1997. These
revised standards incorporate all of the defect reports
approved to date and the Amendment to the protocol
approved in 1995.
The WG also discussed a recognition process for
profiles that would be less formal than the ISP process.
This new process would be based on registration and
would be appropriate for profiles developed primarily for
use by specialized groups. The review for conformance,
and official listing of these profiles will be useful to the
implementers. [Note: A procedure for International Registered Profiles was submitted to TC 46 and approved at the
plenary meeting in London.)
A new work item to standardize the document header
developed in the GEDI project (an international document
delivery activity involving agencies in the United States,
Australia, Canada, and Europe) is in preparation and will be
submitted to ISO in the near future. Work is underway to
investigate the feasibility of developing a circulation message profile using the ILL and IR protocols.
WG 4 began the ISO process to formally establish the
maintenance agencies and registration authorities needed
for the ILL protocol and the IR protocol. The agency for the
ILL protocol will be the National Library of Canada; the
Library of Congress, which already serves as the Maintenance Agency for Z39.50, will be the maintenance agency
for ISO 23950. These two agencies already maintain Web
sites for these protocols:
IL ht p:/ w w.nIc-bnc. a/ifla/l ilprot.htm
IR http://www.loc.gov/z3950/agency
by Sally H. McCallum
TC 46/SC 4/WG 7
Data Elements
The Working Group responsible for data element directories, TC 46/SC 4/WG 7, met on Monday May 12th. The
meeting was attended by delegates from Australia,
France, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Poland, Russian Federation, UK, and USA.
ISO 8459-4 Circulation data elements was balloted
as a DIS from October 24, 1996 to March 24, 1997. The
DIS was approved and comments were received from
8 members. The comments were discussed and resolved including the incorporation of many comments
from the USA. The working group requested that the SC
4 secretariat forward the revised document to ISO for
distribution as a FDIS.
ISO 8459-6 Cataloguing data elements was to be
produced as a full committee draft in 1996, but the drafting
was deferred until completion of the Union Catalogue
Profile over Z39.50. This profile indicates messages and
data elements that will enable that document to become
the base document for ISO 8459-6. After much discussion, this approach was agreed to. Since many traditional
cataloguing data elements may not be explicitly defined in
Part 6, the validity of the title was discussed. Participants
agreed to wait for the working draft before proceeding
further with a request to change the title.
WG 7 members agreed that investigating the consolidation of Parts 1 - 4 of ISO 8459 and the future part
6 is desirable. Part 5 Maintenance procedures would
either be incorporated as an Annex to the consolidated
version or it would be reconsidered after the consolidation exercise. To pursue this goal, the data elements in
the existing parts must be analyzed in detail and the
differences identified.
Janifer Gatenby reported on the Basic Semantic
Repository (BSR) meetings she had attended in Geneva,
Paris and Munich. The work has commenced with the
identification of Basic Semantic Units (BSUs) from the
Core European Implementation Guidelines (CEIG) of
EDIFACT. After EDIFACT has been analyzed, X12 will
also be analyzed. Generic and specific BSUs are being
identified together with a full definition of concepts and
basic properties. Bridges are being established between EDIFACT and BSUs. As bridges will also be
defined for X12 and BSUs, it is expected that the BSR
will be suitable for use as a tool for conversion between
the two. The BSUs are constructed using ISO 11179-4
and need to be read from right to left to be understood.
The BSR project should be completed in December
1997.
The meeting participants concluded that the data element names in the ISO 8459 standard series should be
expressed in commonly agreed terms but that bridges to
BSUs in the BSR would assist interoperability, particularly
for commercial exchange. When the BSR is completed
and the procedures established for the addition of other
domain specific BSRs, WG 7 will assess the feasibility of
identifying bridges and BSUs from ISO 8459.
by Janifer Gatenby
Convener SC 4 WG 7
TC 46/SC 4/WG 8
Library Codes
Twelve delegates from 11 countries attended the first
meeting of Working Group 8 (Library Codes). Countries
represented included: Australia, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, South
Korea, and the United States.
The main item discussed was the working draft of a
standard to provide identifiers for libraries and related
organizations. Such a standard is needed in order to be
able to represent the names and addresses of organizations with a brief, unique, and identifiable identifier. Several countries already have de facto standards for such
codes. The meeting of the WG also discussed several
informational papers that were supplied by Australian and
Danish member bodies.
The Working Group proposed an identifier that would
be made up of several structural components including
a country portion, country subdivision portion, secondary country subdivision portion, and a portion identifying the organization itself. There was much debate on
the merits of various structures for an identifier. There
was also concern over the character sets that would be
allowed in identifiers defined by the standard or in
TC 46/SC 9
Presentation, Identification
and Description of Documents
conformance with it. The delegates agreed that a standard is needed that allows for flexibility and accommodation of existing national systems. The group recommended that the working draft be circulated as a CD
after editorial changes resulting from the London meeting were incorporated into the text.
By Randall K. Barry
TC 46/SC 8
Statistics
The Plenary meeting of SC 8 took place on Monday
The Subcommittee met on May 13, 1997. Since last year's
meeting, New Zealand has joined TC 46/SC 9 as an 0
member and Cuba changed its status from P member to
O member. TC 46/SC 9 now has 20 P-members and 15 0members. New A liaisons were established with the
International Article Numbering Association (EAN), the
International Federation of Film Producers Associations/
Federation internationale des associations de producteurs
morning May 12th. Among the announcements were the
following:
de films (FIAPF), and the International Video Federation.
•
status with TC 46/SC 9 and 3 organizations with B liaison
•
•
•
•
Confirmation of ISO 9230:1991 Determination of
price indexes for books and serials purchased by
libraries
Confirmation of ISO 9707:1991 Statistics on the
production and distribution of books, newspapers,
periodical and electronic publications
Finland is now a P member of SC 8
The Secretariat for SC 8 will be transferred from BSI/
UK to SIS/Sweden
Reports from the UK and Germany on national
reporting practices were made available at the
meeting
The five-year ballot of ISO 2789 International Library
Statistics disclosed that 8 out of 14 P members voted in
favor of revision, and 11 agreed to participate in the
revision work. A question was raised regarding the
number of countries actually using the standard as a
basis for their statistics gathering activities. Aase Lindahl
of the Danish delegation indicated that Denmark would
chair a working group for the standard. Participants
agreed that a feasibility study should be conducted to
There are 17 international organizations that have A liaison
status. An internal liaison was established with ISO/IEC
JTC 1/SC 29 (Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and
hypermedia information) for developmentof the ISAN project.
The list of member bodies and liaison organizations for ISO/
TC 46/SC 9 was distributed in document N 233.
Three SC 9 standards have been published since 1995:
• ISO 999: 1996 Information and documentation.
Guidelines for the content, organization and presen•
Presentation of catalogues and standards.
ISO 10324: 1997 Information and documentation.
Holdings statements — Summary level.
Three standards are at the FDIS stage:
• FDIS 4 Information and documentation. Rules for the
•
abbreviation of title words and titles of publications
•
•
determine the extent of the revision before a WG is
convened.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to a
discussion of the responses received from the ballot of
DIS 11620 Performance indicators. The only negative
vote cast was from the UK, but the UK vote had been
mistakenly cast as negative, it should have been a
positive vote with comments. Most of the suggestions
called for additional performance indicators, especially
for electronic materials data. Most of these areas are
too new to have fully developed performance indicators. Therefore, it was recommended that these indicators be kept in mind as future additions to this standard.
The Subcommittee agreed that this standard should
move to the FDIS stage and that the FDIS should be
circulated in June 1997. It was also recommended that
WG 4 not be disbanded, but continue to consider
further additions to this standard as new work indicators are developed. P-members will be asked to reconsider their membership in WG 4.
The French delegation urged that the title of SC 8 be
changed to acknowledge that its scope is broader than
merely statistics. The new name is "Statistics and
Performance Evaluation."
by Lenore Coral
tation of indexes. 2nd ed.
ISO 7220: 1996 Information and documentation.
•
(revision of ISO 4:1984)
FDIS 690-2 Information and documentation. Bibliographic
references — Electronic documents or parts thereof
FDIS 3297 Information and documentation. International standard serial numbering (ISSN).
Not yet distributed for DIS voting:
DIS 3901 Information and documentation. International standard recording code (ISRC) (revision of ISO
3901: 1986).
At the committee stage:
• CD 8 Information and documentation. Presentation
of periodicals and serials (revision of ISO 8:1977).
•
At the preparatory stage:
WD 5966 Information and documentation. Presentation of scientific and technical reports (revision of
•
ISO 5966: 1982)
WD 15706 Information and documentation. International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN) — see
•
•
report following.
WD 15707 Information and documentation. International Standard Work Code — see report following.
NP 10957 Information and documentation. International standard music number (ISMN) — Amendment 1. This proposed amendment (PDAM) was
adopted last year. In order for it to be properly
registered, five P-members were required to state
their support (US, UK, CA, SW, FR) all agreed to
support work needed for this amendment and it will
now be forwarded.
• DTR 11015 Information and documentation. Abbreviations of typical bibliographic terms. See report
following.
International Standard Audiovisual Number
(ISAN)
SC 9 WG 1 has been proposed to manage WD 15706
International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN). Two
working drafts have been submitted for the proposed
ISAN standard. The first draft was prepared by a joint
committee of the International Confederation of Societies
of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and the Association
for the International Collective Management of Audiovisual Works (AGICOA). Another working draft was submitted by the International Federation of Film Producers
Associations (FIAPF). It is available on the TC 46/SC 9 Web
page and in print form. The proposed ISAN is intended for
implementation and/or use by producers of audiovisual
works, organizations involved in the administration of
rights to such works, and other parties actively involved
with the production and distribution of audiovisual works.
An internal liaison for the ISAN project was established
with ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 (Coding of audio, picture,
multimedia and hypermedia information). SC 9 approved
the following team of project officers: Convener: Andre
Cabeau (FIAPF); Project Leader: Dominique Yon (CISAC);
Rapporteaur: Evelyne Treboux (AGICOA).
International Standard Work Code (ISWC)
SC 9 WG 2 will be responsible for WD 15707 International
Standard Work Code (ISWC). A working draft for the ISWC
standard was distributed with the New Work Item proposal. It was prepared by a joint committee of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) and the International Bureau for the
Administration of Mechanical Rights (BIEM). Comments
from ISO/TC 46/SC 9 members on the working draft were
distributed in document N 231. Dominique Yon (CISAC)
was approved by SC 9 as the Project Leader.
DTR 11015:
Abbreviation Of Typical
Bibliographic Terms
The ISO TMB has stated that all projects of ten years or
older are to be automatically canceled unless a subcommittee can confirm its viability and provide a plan for
actively progressing the work. At last year's meeting, SC
9 briefly discussed a proposal to reconfigure Draft Technical Report (DTR) 11015 as a Web-accessible database
instead of as a printed ISO Technical Report. The SC 9
Secretariat asked for volunteers to lead this Web initiative.
On the basis of this plan, SC 9 was granted an extension
of the DTR 11015 project until January 1998. Since then
the Swedish national committee (STG TK 129) for TC 46/
SC 9 has volunteered to provide the project leadership for
developing DTR 11015 as a Web database. A Web version
of DTR 11015 should be available by 1999.
The intervening two years would be used to edit the
data and analyze the system requirements. The proposal
is that the Russian State Library would work in cooperation with the Swedish project in order to make the Cyrillic
portion of the DTR 11015 database available via the Web.
The main objective in discussing DTR 11015 at the May
1997 meeting was to determine whether SC 9 members
want to retain DTR 11015 in the program of work and if
they are still willing to participate in the project by reviewing the abbreviations for their own language groups. If so,
SC 9 will need to approve a resolution confirming the
viability of DTR 11015. A work plan and target date for
progressing DTR 11015 will also have to be established.
Six P-members (Poland, United Kingdom, Denmark, Hungary, Russia, Sweden, and Canada) agreed to help with
the project.
New ISO Criteria for
the Review of International Standards
The ISO Technical Management Board has changed the
criteria for the five-year review of ISO standards. The new
criteria could have a serious impact on many of the
standards produced by TC 46/SC 9. TMB decided that at
least five member bodies must indicate during the systematic review that they are using the ISO standard either
directly or through adoption as a national standard. If the
ISO standard is not being used, it should be withdrawn. If
it is adopted nationally but with modifications, the modifications should be considered with a view to revising the
International Standard. If it is being used without change
by at least five member bodies, it can be confirmed. The
SC 9 standards which are most likely to be affected by the
new review criteria are those which function as guidelines
on the presentation of information by publishers, authors,
editors, and indexers. This includes standards such as:
ISO 214 Abstracts; ISO 999 Indexes; ISO 1086 Title
leaves; ISO 8 Presentation of periodicals; and ISO 5963
Methods for determining subjects and selecting indexing
terms. Some of these standards may not have been
formally adopted as national standards but may be applied
by individuals and organizations within ISO's member
countries. However, it can be difficult to accurately monitor these types of applications. Without clear evidence of
national applications, some of these standards may have
to be withdrawn under the new criteria. The national
committees within TC 46/SC 9's member countries were
asked to consider the effect of this new criteria on the
standards developed by SC 9. The SC 9 Secretariat will be
discussing this matter with the Advisory Group for ISO/TC
46. A plan for addressing this situation in terms of SC 9's
program of work may be developed for further discussion
at the 1998 meeting.
by Lenore Coral
TC 46/SC 10
Physical Keeping of Documents
After reviewing the ballot results and subsequent editorial
changes, SC 10 approved resolutions to forward to ISO's
Central Secretariat the revision of CD 11798 Permanence
and durability of writing, printing and copying media on
paper documents - Requirements and testing methods
and CD 14416 Requirements for binding of books, Periodicals, serials and other paper documents for library and
archival use - Methods and materials for distribution as
final draft international standards. The resolutions included a recommendation that the ISO Central Secretariat consider adding informative illustrations to the
binding standard. DIS 11800 Requirements for binding
materials and methods used in the manufacture of
books was approved by TC 46 members and forwarded
to the ISO Central Secretariat in February, 1997 for
circulation as a formal draft.
Helmut Bansa, convener of Working Group 3, reported
that many comments were received on CD 11799 Document storage requirements. Most were incorporated into
the draft that was out for ballot at the time of the London
meeting.
After discussion of the vote on whether to approve the
new work item NP 167 Archives boxes and file covers for
without aid of an instrument is 0.02. This was proposed as
the highest acceptable contrast ratio for archival board
tested according to the proposed procedures.
A question was raised concerning the use of 90 degrees C and 50 % RH rather than the standard 80 degrees
C and 65% RH. The convener responded that since most
laboratories prefer higher temperatures because the testing can be completed more quickly, perhaps the more
commonly used 80 degrees C and 65% RH should be
reconsidered. Since repeating the migration tests using
80 C/65% RH would take another two years and probably
produce the same results, it was decided that conditions
as outlined in the draft should not be changed and that no
further lab tests would be conducted.
Discussion followed concerning whether the standard
should specify other characteristics such as pH, Kappa
number, or alkaline reserve. The Working Group concluded that the migration test should go forward as a
paper documents," it was decided that the scope should
separate standard which could be cited in conjunction
not be limited to the storage of paper documents and that
a new working group (WG 6) would be convened by Jiri
Kolar of Sweden. A request for experts to serve on the
working group will be issued to SC 10 members.
with other specifications and standards such as ISO 9706
Paper for documents - Requirements for permanence and
ISO 11108 Archival papers - Requirements for permanence and durability. There was agreement that the development of other test methods and specifications for
archival boards should be delegated to another working
SC 10 approved a resolution of appreciation for the
substantial contributions made by the late Rolland Aubey.
Rolland Aubey had for many years served as a U.S.
delegate to SC 10. Mr. Aubey's balanced judgment, depth
of technical knowledge and thoughtful approach to
discussions were remembered. Noted in particular was
his major role in the successful development of ISO 9706
Paper for documents Requirements for permanence and
DIS 11798 Permanence and durability of writing, printing
and copying media on paper documents - Requirements
and testing methods.
Subcommittee members passed a resolution of appreciation for the work of SC 10 chairman Rolf Dahlo and
strongly support his reappointment to the position for a
period of three years.
by Margaret Byrnes
TC 46/SC 10/WG 1
Permanence of Paper for Documents
Convener Per Olof Bethge distributed the results of the
interlaboratory tests of procedures outlined in the working
draft entitled Archival boards - Migration Test. The test
measures the change in brightness of blotting paper that
has been in contact with sample boards for seven days
under conditions of 90 degrees C and 50% RH. Testing for
loss of brightness is simpler than other methods of measuring deterioration in paper because the results are
obvious to the naked eye. The boards to be tested are
those intended for use in direct contact with valuable
documents stored in libraries or archives over long periods
of time. Examples include boards used in storage boxes,
for matting or mounting works of art, or for interleaving in
books or document boxes. Binders board is not included.
The interlaboratory test involved seven labs and nine
sample boards. The results indicate that the lower limit of
a contrast ratio that can be observed in normal daylight
group.
by Margaret Byrnes
TC 46/SC 10/WG 5
Storage and Handling of Audio and Video
Media
Convener Victor A. Ustinov distributed a first draft entitled
Requirements for Storage and Preservation of Sound
Media, Cine Media, Video Media, and other Related Media. Because of potential overlap with the work of other
ISO technical committees and the fact that photography is
excluded from the work of SC 10, participants recommended that the scope of the document be narrowed to
include only audio and video media.
The October 1996 agreement for close cooperation
between TC 46 SC 10 and TC 42 WG 5 on The development of W/D 15524, Photography - Polyester base magnetic tape -Storage practices, was noted. Discussion then
focused on the need for more SC 10/WG 5 members
relevant technical expertise. It was decided that the first
draft prepared by Mr. Ustinov should be sent to SC 10
members and other ISO technical committees for comment. SC 10 members and liaisons will be invited to
nominate experts to be appointed to the Working Group.
The convener will identify and contact other groups working on standards in audio, video, and related areas.
by Margaret Byrnes
TC 37/SC 2-TC 46/SC 4
Joint Working Group on Language Codes
In 1995 the Joint Working Group (JWG), with 16 delegates from nine countries, considered the results of
the balloting on ISO/CD 639-2 Three character language
codes. This standard is very close to the code list used
There are approximately 25 different codes for lesser
Compact. It allows for quick access to all bibliographic
data. The ISSN Register is also available on magnetic
used languages and around 25 new language codes. All
comments and objections received with the ballots
tape.
Because the ISSN is used to identify all serials
were discussed and resolved, leading to agreement
without dissent that CD 639-2 as amended be forwarded for DIS ballot and that the Library of Congress
be designated as the registration authority.
ISO/DIS 639-2 was distributed to the member bodies of TC 37/SC 2 for ballot in 1996 in accordance with
ISO procedures. When the ballot tally was complete,
ISO announced that the draft had been approved. Many
ballots offered comments, and these are now being
regardless of the physical media, two new bibliographic fields have been added: Physical medium
code and Bibliographic link for other physical medium editions. At the May 1997 ISSN Directors Meeting, new bibliographic adjustments for the identification of electronic series and online serials was part of
in the USA and many other countries for MARC records.
reviewed as part of the work necessary to complete the
"Report of Voting." This report is due on July 21, 1997.
Many of the suggestions will be referred to the registration authority for further consideration, once the registration authority is established. Meanwhile, the project
is proceeding with preparation of a FDIS.
The chair determined that it would not be necessary
to convene a meeting of the JWG due to the favorable
ballot on DIS 639-2 and a clear indication of the next
steps.
by John D. Byrum, Jr., Convener
JWG on Language Codes
ISSN Registration Authority
The revision of the ISSN Standard, ISO 3297, begun in
1991 is ongoing. In May 1966, the comments from
member bodies were examined during the meeting of
SC 9, and the text was finalized by the project leader
and the secretary of the SC. It will be circulated as FDIS
3297 for a final vote by TC 46.
Since the last ISO TC 46 plenary meeting in 1995, the
extension of the ISSN Network has continued with the
creation of three new national centers in Cyprus, Georgia, and Latvia. To date, the ISSN Network encompasses the International Centre, a Regional Center for
South-East Asia and 66 National Centers located in the
following countries: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia,
Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Gambia,
Ghana, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, New Zealand,
Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal,
Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,
Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sir Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey,
United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay,
Venezuela, Yugoslavia.
ISSN are registered in bibliographic records which
are published in the ISSN Register. The Register now
includes 802,000 records which represents an increase
of 10 percent (80,000 new ISSNs) during the past two
years. The primary distribution medium for the ISSN
Register is a CD-ROM, issued under the title ISSN
the agenda.
The International Centre distributes its annual report to all interested organizations. In addition, all
documents about the work in progress, statistics,
etc., are available on request at the International
Centre or through the ISSN home page: http://
www.issn.org
Standard Report Number (ISRN)
Registration Authority
The International ISRN Agency supporting ISO 10444
started its work in 1995. Its initial task was to find
national agencies in different countries who had access
to and/or produced international databases in science
and technology. The ISBN Agency prepared and distributed its initial Guidelines for National/Regional ISRN
Agencies. The guidelines are being revised by national
centers and registration is not yet underway. In addition
to this work, a software program is under development;
it will be released in 1997. Nine countries have named
or will name national agencies:
Centre de Recherche sur ('information
Scientific et Technique, Hydra Alger
Algeria
Australia
National Library of Australia, Canberra
Helsinki University Library
Finland
France
Germany
INIST, Institut de ('information
Sientifique et Technique, Nancy
Technische Informationsbibliothek,
Hannover
Namibia
Spain
National Library of Namibia, Windhoek
Centro de lnformacion y Documentation Cientifica, Madrid
United Kingdom BLDSC, Boston Spa
United States
NTIS, Springfield, VA
Belgium, Canada, Russia, and South Africa will be
contacted next. Future tasks include: promotion of
the ISRN for use in information services and databases; data collection from national agencies; creation of an advisory board for the ISO 10444 Registration Authority.
I
ISQ
For network management:
Hand-off mechanisms
IISP Meeting Report
by Mark Needleman
Exception handling, and
Logical network infrastructure management.
On behalf of NISO, I attended the ANSI Information
Infrastructure Standards Panel meeting held in Alexandria
Virginia on June 18 and 19, 1997. The theme was
Nomadicity—the whole range of issues relating to network communications by users who are not in a fixed
location.
The meeting started with an opening plenary. There
Hirschman stated that some of the issues related to
Nomadicity have already been addressed by cellular technologies. He noted that it is essential to separate the issues
of mobility and services because much of what is designed
to handle mobility could be used in other contexts.
Following the plenary, the meeting broke up into sepa-
was a report from the Nomadicity Roundtable held the day
rate working groups:
WG 2 Standards Framework Management
before where Nomadicity needs were discussed. Valerie
Shuman of SEI Technology Group spoke about Intelligent
Transport Systems (ITS) and the Global Information Infrastructure (GII). She defined ITS as the application of
communications and computing technology to improve
the safety and efficiency of travel. The range of applications that come under this umbrella include:
•
Traveler management
•
Traffic management
•
Commercial vehicle applications
•
Public transit and
•
Vehicle control systems.
Shuman sees an integration between GII and ITS: ITS
provides a mobile environment for Gil services and GII
supports the delivery of ITS services. ITS creates useful,
static, and real-time content for the GII while the full range
of GII content will soon be available in ITS environments
such as cars.
"Nomadicity and Infrastructure Concepts," offered by
Lou Dellaverson of reviewed the characteristics of the
current network types: mobile networks; fixed networks;
wired networks; and wireless networks.
Dellaverson also described the technology and infrastructure needed to support mobility and some of the
current designs. He concluded by presenting his vision of
the next 15 years during which the separation between
networks based on technologies such as wired or wireless will be meaningless — there will be a single network
that will encompass a range of technologies to provide
universal access.
Brent Hirschman of Motorola identified many of the
standards needed to support Nomadicity:
For location registration:
Person/device location
Device coordination and recognition of device
capabilities
Unique and anonymous ids, and
Rerouting and redirection of requests.
For services:
Communications management
Context management
Dynamic service allocation, and
Persona management.
WG 4 User/Content Provider Standards Requirements
WG 5 International Aspects of the Gil
WG 6 Cross Industry Task Group
WG 2 Standards
Framework Management
WG 2 news included:
•
An announcement that a IEEE study group on Internet
Practices will meet on July 14 and 15, 1997. Information can be found at http://www.computer.org/standard/I nternet/csipg htm
•
An international conference on Building the International Information Society for the 21st Century: New
Applications and Opportunities, Coherent Standards
and Regulations will be held in Brussels on October 13, 1997. Information on the conference can be found at
http://www.ispo.cec.be/standards/conf97/
program.html
•
The U.S. will host the 1998 IEC meeting, and the IISP
will help conduct a half day session on the GII.
WG 2/WG 4 Meeting on Security
The working group undertook a final review of all pending
security needs:
Anonymous Features:
De-Identification of Personal Information
Anonymous Data Transfer
Anonymous Database/Information Search
Anonymous Addressing and Rendezvous
Confidentiality:
Misinformation Encoding Schemes
Multipath Routing
Fragmentation and Reconstruction
Public Key Management Systems
Prevention of Theft, Tampering, and Destruction:
Firewalls
Standardized Interfaces to Proxy Mechanisms
Validating Data Integrity
Data Integrity Recovery
Digital Signatures
Flooding Control
WG 6 Cross Industry Task Group
Covert Secure Identification Tags
Non-Repudiation Mechanisms
Breach Management:
Locking Mechanisms for Passive II Components
Alarm Parameters and Methods
Security Violation Handling Methods
Authentication, Authorization, Delegation, and
Administration:
Access Control Lists for Data
Access Control Lists for Operations
Identity Authentication Protocols
Evaluation Methods and Criteria:
Evaluation Criteria for Auditing Methods
WG 4 User/Content Provider
Standards Requirements
Banking, payments and related standards were the
focus. Discussion addressed fraud, regulatory needs,
EDI, and payment schemes. The needs statements
relevant to software accessibility were reviewed.
The need statement on searching/indexing was completed and approved for posting on the ISSP web
page.
WG 5 International Aspects
of the Gil
Liaisons with national, regional, and international
groups reported on electronic commerce activities in
the European Union. Additional reports provided information about the work of ITU-T Study Group 13,
the work of the JTC 1 Ad Hoc Committee on
Reengineering, and an update on the IEC Special
Working Group on the GII, and the upcoming Global
Standardization Conference.
Needs relating to premises interoperation (voice command set, wireless control system, and wire based control system universal controllability) were discussed.
The next IISP meeting will be held August 20-21,
1997, in Alexandria Virginia. Information about the I ISP
can be found at http://www.ansi.org/iisp.
DTIC '97 Annual Users Meeting
The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) is presenting its DTIC '97 Annual Users Meeting and Training
Conference on November 3-6, 1997 at the DoubleTree
Hotel, National Airport, Arlington, VA. The theme of the
conference, Information in the New Millennium, reflects
DTIC's goal to assist its customer community in meeting
tomorrow's challenges by providing the most relevant information in the most appropriate format as quickly as possible.
This meeting will explore new developments at DTIC
and throughout the federal information network. Keynote
speakers are: Dr. Charles McClure (School of Information
Studies, Syracuse University); Ms. Mary Beth Peters
(Copyright Office, Library of Congress); and Mr. Cliff
Bernath (Assistant Secretary of Defense, Public Affairs.
Exhibitors from other federal agencies and the Department of Defense will be featured. All of the presentations
will address the most current issues affecting the research, development, and acquisition communities. Not
only will these speakers acquaint participants with the
latest policy and operational developments, they will also
provide practical details on valuable and diverse domestic
and foreign information resources, security issues, the
World Wide Web, copyright, and the storage and dissemination of electronic documents.
For details on the conference, visit the DTIC homepage at
http://www.dtic.mil or contact Ms. Julia Foscue at 703 767
8236 or by e-mail at [email protected] .
BUILDING THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY:
NEW APPLICATIONS AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES —
COHERENT STANDARDS AND REGULATIONS
October 1-3, 1997 Brussels
This is the second international conference on building the Global Information Infrastructure sponsored by the ISO, ITU, and IEC.
The goal of the meeting is to promote interoperability in information systems in the 21st century by identifying and promoting the
resolution of outstanding standardization issues. Conference participants will gain a better understanding of national and
transnational GII projects; share experiences about GII implementations; learn how timely standards can resolve difficulties in
developing new products/markets/applications; and explore methods for achieving global interoperability to facilitate development
of new products and markets.
Four conference themes will be addressed in workshop sessions:
n Electronic commerce
n Services to the public
n Individual use
n Communications infrastructure interoperability
The program is intended to focus on market developments and business opportunities and is geared to serving the information
infrastructure and services user, content providers, standards developers, and researchers involved in GII pilot projects; and
standards leaders in business and government.
For details on the conference visit the Global Standards Conference web site:
www.ispo.cec.be/standards/conf97/
NISO NEWS AND NOTES
NISO Balloting Calendar:
International Update
June 1997
ISO Items Out-for-Ballot
U.S./NISO adoption of the ISO 23950
Information Retrieval
The following proposed international standards developed by TC46 are now out-for-N ISO-ballot and review. The
documents can be requested from NISO headquarters.
Z39.48-1992 Five-year review of the Paper Permanence standard. Reaffirmation Ballot
CD 10161 pDAM1 Support for the use of object identifier
in "identifier" parameter of the extension data type.
Ballot closes: 8/1/97
ISO 23950
August 1997
Z39.81-199x
Data Dictionary for Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Patron Records
September 1997
Z39.75-199x
Default ballot: Sorting
Z39.77-199x
New Standard: Preservation Product
Information
ANSI/NISO/
ISO 3166
Country Codes (U.S. adoption of the
latest edition of the ISO country codes
standard)
October 1997
Z39.71-199x
Holdings Statements for Bibliographic
Items
NISO Meeting Calendar
SC AJ - Downloading Records,
San Francisco
August 1997
8/1
Standards Development Committee,
Washington, DC
September 1997
9/8
SC AP, BICI,
Washington, DC
9/23
NISO Board of Directors,
Washington, DC
October 1997
10/15 World Standards Day
December 1997
12/8
U.S. Votes on
Proposed International Standards:
The following recaps the U.S. votes submitted by NISO on
ISO draft standards. Copies of comments are available on
request from the NISO office.
Approve
FDIS 3166-1 Country Codes.
Recently Published ISO Standards
The following ISO standards have been published. In the
U.S. ISO standards can be purchased from the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI). To place an order
contact the ANSI Order Department at 212-642-4900.
ISO 10324 Holdings statements—Summary level.
Specifies display requirements for holdings statements at the summary level for serial and non-serial
items. 31 pages. Price: $72.
ISO 10160 Interlibrary loan application service definition
59 pages. Price: $96.
July 1997
7/1
Technical Corrigendum 1 to ISO 10161-2.
Ballot closes: 8/1/97
Standards Development Committee,
Washington, DC
ISO 10161-1 Interlibrary loan application protocol
specification, Part 1: Protocol specification. 109
pages.
Price: $125.
ISO 10161-2 Interlibrary loan application protocol
specification, Part 2: Protocol implementation
conformance statement (PICS) proforma. 38 pages.
Price: $82.
NISO Elects
New Members to
Board of Directors
Joel H Baron, Group Director, Dawson/Information Services Group is NISO's new chair effective July 1, 1997.
Baron replaces outgoing NISO chair Michael J. McGill,
Chief Information Officer for the University of Michigan
Medical Center.
Mr. Baron has been active in NISO since 1992, having
also served as NISO Treasurer and as a NISO Board
Member representing publishing. As the former Vice
NISO's SDC plays a central role in the development of
President for Publisher Services at the Faxon Company, a
division of Dawson, he helped establish Faxon's office in
Russia and conducted business seminars for publishers in
the former Soviet Union. Baron has chaired the Journals
Committee of the Association of American Publishers,
and is a long-standing member of the International Group
of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers.
new standards used in library services, publishing and
many other information-related industries. The SDC continually evaluates proposals for new standards and coordinates the activities of twenty other standards committees
N ISO's new vice chair/chair-elect is Donald J. Muccino,
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of
Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC). As the
former Vice President of Information Services at OCLC,
Mr. Muccino directed the research, development and
operation of OCLC's hardware and software systems.
NISO's new Treasurer is Michael J. Mellinger, President of Data Research Associates, Inc. (RDA). RDA is a
leading vendor of client/server automation systems and
services for libraries and other information providers.
Under Mellinger's leadership, RDA has grown to become
a publicly held company with annual revenues of approximately $40 million, with more than 700 system installations serving more than 2,500 institutions worldwide. Mr.
Mellinger also served as NISO chair 1993-1995. He has
been a driving force in promoting NISO's participation in
the activities of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and in promoting better participation and
support of NISO from the constituencies it serves.
New to NISO's Board is Albert W. Simmonds, Director
of Standards Development for R.R. Bowker. Mr. Simmonds
will replace Elizabeth Bole Eddison, Chairman of Inmagic,
Inc., as one of three NISO directors representing publishing. Mr. Simmonds also chairs the Book Industry Systems
Advisory Committee and the Title Status Subcommittee
of BISAC, and is a member of the Joint Committee of
the Association of American Publishers/Association of
Library Collections and Technical Services of the Library
of Congress.
Elected to second three-year terms are Vinod
Chachra, President of VTLS, Inc., and Lennie Stovel, a
software development manager at The Research Libraries Group, Inc.
NISO's other board members are: Nolan F. Pope,
Associate Director for Automation, General Library System, University of Wisconsin-Madison (representing libraries); Beverly P. Lynch, UCLA Graduate School of
Education and Information Studies (representing libraries); Howard Turtle, Principal Research Scientist, West
Publishing (representing information services); Marjorie
Hlava, President and Chairman, Access Innovations, Inc.
(representing publishing); and Patricia R. Harris, NISO
Executive Director/Secretary.
New Members Join Standards
Development Committee
Priscilla Caplan, Karen Anspach, and Vicky Gray were
appointed to NISO Standards Development Committee
(SDC) in May 1997.
that focus on specific areas of interest.
Priscilla Caplan, the new SDC co-chair, is the Assistant Director for Library Systems at the University of
Chicago Library. Prior to joining the University of Chicago Library she worked at the Harvard University
Library, where she headed the Systems Development
Division of the Office for Information Systems from
1985-1993, and served as Systems Librarian for the
Office for Systems Planning and Research from 19791985. Ms. Caplan is a recently appointed member of the
ALA LITA Technical Standards for Library Automation
(TESLA) committee. She also served as the LITA representative to MARBI from 1990-1996 and was the MARBI
Chair from 1994-1996. In addition, she served on the
OCLC Internet Cataloging Project Advisory Board from
1994-1996.
Karen Anspach has more than 20 years experience in
various facets of the information industry. She currently
is a Systems Analyst at EOS International, Inc. (formerly
Data Trek, Inc.), a subsidiary of Dawson Holdings, PLC.
In that capacity, she is responsible for the specification
of database structures, functional requirements and
user interface design for MARC-based ILS development, including the Professional Series system, GoPAC
(Windows-based OPAC), and the Q Series graphical
client/server system now under development. She also
helped design the user interfaces for Dawson's electronic information access product, Information Quest.
Previously, Ms. Anspach gained experience in Integrated Library Systems development at Brodart Company, where she worked on installation requirements
and implementation of online cataloging software. Ms.
Anspach has served on various SISAC X12 Implementation subcommittees as well as its Technical Advisory
Group and is a current member of the ALA LITA Technical Standards for Library Automation (TESLA) committee.
Vicky Gray has worked for Information Access Company (IAC) in San Mateo, California, for 25 years, most
recently as Director of Planning and Design for the
Content Development Division. Her previous positions
with IAC include: Director of Database Production Operations from 1989-1995. Manager of Editorial Operations from 1982-1988, and Indexer/Editor from 19791982. She holds of Master's of Library Science from the
Simmons College School of Library Science in Boston,
Massachusetts. In addition to her activities with NISO,
Ms. Gray is an active member of the National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services, the Special Libraries Association, and the American Library
Association. She also serves on the Board of Directors
of the Community Career Education Center in San
Mateo, California.
I
ISQ
Standards Status: July 1, 1997
This is a capsule status report on each active NISO committee or new standard-in-development.
To learn more about each activity, contact the NISO office or visit the NISO web site at: www.niso.org .
This list does not include current, approved standards not being revised.
Status
Standard or Committee
Withdrawn
Z39.4-1984
Guidelines for Indexes and Related Information Retrieval
Devices (Revision of Z39.4-1984). To be published as NISO
Technical Report.
Publication
Z39 7-1995
Library Statistics
Revision
Z39.20-199x
Revision of Z39.20-1983, Criteria for Price Indexes for Library
Materials
Publication
Z39.26-1997
Micropublishing Product Information (Revision of Z39.26-1980,
Advertising of Micropublications)
Development
Z39.29-199x
Bibliographic References
Publication
Z39.41-1997
Printed Information on Spines
Withdrawn
Z39.63-1989
Interlibrary Loan Data Elements (see Z39.81-199x)
Development
Z39.71-199x
Holdings Statements for Bibliographic Items (SC AL)
Default
Z39.75-199x
Alphabetical Arrangement of Letters and the Sorting of
Numerals and Other Symbols
Ballot
Z39.77-199x
Preservation Product Information (SCSS)
Development
Z39.78-199x
Library Binding (SCZZ)
Development
Z39.80-199x
Format for Downloading Records from Bibliographic and
Abstracting/Indexing Databases (SCAJ)
Ballot
Z39.81-199x
Data Dictionary for Circulation, Interlibrary Loan, and User
Records
Development
SCAO
Title Pages of Conference Proceedings
Development
SCMM
Env. Conditions for the Exhibition of Library... Materials
Development
SCAP
BICI: Book Item and Contribution Identifier
Development
SCAQ
Performance Specifications for the Digital Talking Book
NISO PRESS NEWS
NEW FROM NISO PRESS:
Available now to update your standards bookshelf—
Z39.56-1996 Serial Item and Contribution Identifier (SICI)
The SICI is a variable length code which can be used to identify both print
and electronic serial publications. This new edition of the SICI standard
introduces significant changes such as the ability to identify if the serial
is electronic, paper, or microformat and the identification of derivative
parts of a serial. It is more flexible, allowing proprietary numbering
schemes. Changes in the title code algorithm make it easier to use and
improve the uniqueness of the SICI code for contributions.
36 pp. ISBN:1-880124-28-9 Price: $49.00
Z39.76-1996 Data Elements for Binding Library Materials
Defines both required and optional data elements that can be used in a
binding record to enable automated library systems to communicate
with a bindery's automated system.
48 pp. ISBN: 1-880124-29-7
Price: $49.00
Standards Activities Organizations in the United States (1996 edition)
Robert B. Toth, Editor
This is the most comprehensive guide to standards developers in the
U.S. It gives detailed information on 620 nongovernment standards
developers (both formal and informal) and 80 standards programs of the
Federal government. Also lists standards distributors and libraries and
information centers that specialize in providing information about
standards.
778 pages ISBN: N/A Price: $99.00
An Evaluation of the Federal Government's Implementation of the
Government Information Locator Service (GILS) by William E. Moen
and Charles McClure. Washington, DC: GPO, 1997.
Moen and McClure present a comprehensive evaluation of the first
major government information system for the U.S. federal government: the Government Information Locator Service. GILS, implementing the Z39.50 information retrieval protocol, promised to make
government records publicly available government-wide. The study
identifies 45 agencies using GILS and reports on the success of their
implementations. Findings and recommendations are presented.
451 pp. ISBN: 0-16-049186-X Price: $49.00
Z39.14-1997 Guidelines for Abstracts
The profusion of print and electronic information can make it difficult
to identify needed information. Good abstracts provide accurate
information on content and can solve this problem. This standard helps
authors and editors prepare useful abstracts by describing the components of an abstract and the appropriate styles and formats. Numerous
examples illustrate the instructions presented in the standard and
clarify how to handle special cases.
24 pp. ISBN: 1-880124-31-9 Price: $39.0
Z39.7-1995 Library Statistics
The official national standard for data collection in all types of libraries.
Z39.7 identifies and defines the basic data collection categories.
Based on the NCES collection instruments, this standard is intended
to provide valid and comparable data on American libraries.
18 pp. ISBN: 1-880124-27-0 Price: $39.00