Ninety-five people attended a one-day National Information Standards Organization (NISO) invitational conference at the Library of Congress on April 30. NISO is an accredited Standards Committee of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The purpose of the meeting was to identify critical issues facing NISO in the next 5 to 10 years, to acquaint people with the work of NISO, and to involve top people in industry in the standards making process. The attendees included representatives of academic, special, public and school libraries; publishers and jobbers; utility and network representatives; consultants; and information service executives.
Through a process of group discussion and reportage, the participants identified some 65 issues of concern. There was no detailed discussion of the issues so identified but participants did have the opportunity to rank them in order of importance. An informal count of these rankings showed the highest priority given to the linking of systems. The standard setting process itself was considered to be the second most significant issue. (Many participants felt that the process should be faster and more broadly based.) The third ranked issue was the development of standards for the encoding and retrieval of information from optical mass memories, and virtually tied with it, was the development of a common command language for automated library systems. Increasing awareness and acceptance of standards appeared to be ranked fifth. Other issues receiving large numbers of votes were copyright and the use of technology for preservation. A detailed report will be available in late June and will be presented as part of the background materials for a NISO committee meeting.
