LITA Blog

Cindy Hepfer, hardworking ALA Voting Representative to NISO has forwarded to us a group of announcements related to ISO/DIS 16175, Information and documentation–Principles and functional requirements for records in electronic office environments. This is a Fast track ballot, used to create an ISO standard from an existing standard, in this case the International Council on Archives and the Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative standard of the same title. Fast track standards are submitted for their first ballot at the enquiry (DIS) stage; if there are no negative votes, the standard can proceed directly to publication.

This ballot is in three parts:

Part 1: Overview and statement of principles
Part 2: Guidelines and functional requirements for records in electronic office environments
Part 3: Guidelines and functional requirements for records in business systems

As a reminder of the process: ALA is a voting member of NISO, while NISO is the official US voting member of other International Organization for Standardization (ISO) groups. On behalf of ALA, Cindy will be providing feedback to NISO as to whether ALA believes that NISO should approve or disapprove the standard. NISO staff will review and consider our feedback along with that received from numerous other voting members.

Because this is an ISO standard, access to the text for review is only available via Cindy (her email is: HSLcindy@buffalo.edu). Any ALA member who wishes to see a copy of the draft standard must explicitly state to Cindy that he/she is a current ALA member. (It helps me to provide activity information to LITA if you also copy me on your request at metadata.maven@gmail.com).

Deadline for comments to Cindy is Monday, May 17, 2010.

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

The LITA President reviewed a market survey, comments from the joint LITA Board Meeting with the Committee and Interest Group chairs in 2008, the LITA Town Meeting in 2009 and the LITA Board Meeting in 2010 and identified all of the possible ideas that LITA could explore as potential strategies for the next LITA Strategic Plan.  Those strategies were then sorted under major categories.

At today’s LITA Town Meeting we are going to review the the existing strategies and identifying missing strategies. During the Town Meeting we will break out into groups and each group will review one section. Each group will then perform the following tasks for their assigned section:

1. add possible strategies that are missing
2. identify which strategies are worth developing and incorporating into the future strategic plan and give them a time frame (can be complete in 1 year, 2-3 years or 3+ years)
3. identify the possible strategies that are essential to the future of LITA

The groups will reconvene and share the results of their discussion. The rest of the board can provide their thoughts as well.

You can also follow us via Twitter using #litath.

The draft strategic plan is on ALA Connect.

Update: did you listen, watch, read or attend? Give us your feedback!

1/24/10 update – Alas, we did not manage to capture the audio, as we had intended, but you can read an abridged summary of the conversation and see all the links shared during the session thanks to one of our committee members. The live blog, comments, and tweets tagged #alamwttt can be viewed below.

Join the LITA Top Technology Trends Committee on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. E.S.T. for a lively discussion of top technology trends in librarianship, with panelists Amanda Etches-Johnson, Jason Griffey, Joe Murphy, Lauren Pressley, and David Walker. The discussion will be moderated by Gregg Silvis.

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Will you be in Boston? Join us in person: Boston Convention Center (BCEC-162A/B).

It’s that time again, folks; the semi-annual Top Technology Trends conversation is upon us. This year’s midwinter has us enjoying the history and chill of Boston, but like the last midwinter Top Tech discussion in Denver, you can participate from the warmth of your living room or from wherever you may be, a week from this Sunday.

WHERE: Boston Convention Center (BCEC-162A/B), here at litablog.org, from ustream.tv, or via Twitter (#alamwttt) links to follow soon!
WHEN: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. E.S.T.

The start of the second decade of the century starts with five Trendsters who are new to the Top Tech Table:

Amanda Etches-Johnson, User Experience Librarian at McMaster University
Jason Griffey, Head of Library Information Technology at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Joe Murphy, Science Librarian, Yale University
Lauren Pressley, Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest University
David Walker, Web Services Librarian, California State University System

Join us for a fun and casual discussion, moderated by Gregg Silvis, LITA Top Tech Trends Committee chair.

Some end-of-year announcements by Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting Representative to NISO, give us some potential ideas for what to do over the long holidays, should all that free time make us antsy.

1. ISO/FDIS 690, Information and documentation — Guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources, ballot for final draft standard.

“This International Standard gives guidelines for the preparation of bibliographic references. It is applicable to bibliographic references and citations to all kinds of information resources, including but not limited to monographs, serials, contributions, patents, cartographic materials, electronic information resources (including computer software and databases), music, recorded sound, prints, photographs, graphic and audiovisual works, and moving images. It is not applicable to machine-parsable citations. It is also not applicable to legal citations, which have their own standards. This will be the third edition of the standard merging and revising ISO 690:1987 and ISO 690-2:1997.”

Also noted: “There were quite a few edits made between the previous draft and this one to address comments and particularly for consistency (especially in examples). Most of these were editorial, rather than substantive in nature. A link provided in the ballot references the final voting report for the previous draft, which includes a response to all of the comments. When voting and commenting keep in mind that at this final stage a “Yes” vote can only have editorial, non-substantive comments. If a sufficient number of Yes votes are obtained, the standard will proceed to publication.”

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Tuesday Jan. 12, 2010.

2. ISO/DIS 24616, Linguistic resources management — Multilingual information framework, liaison ballot.

“This standard describes a metamodel and data categories for a Multilingual information framework (MLIF) that provides a generic platform for modeling and managing multilingual information in various domains: localization, translation, multimedia, document management, digital library, and information or business modeling applications. MLIF provides a metamodel and a set of generic data categories for various application domains. MLIF also provides strategies for the interoperability and/or linking of models including, but not limited to: XLIFF, TMX, SMILText and ITS.”

This is a ballot for a standard developed by the ISO subcommittee on language resource management (TC37/SC4). As a liaison to this committee, we can only recommend a vote and supply comments. The US vote on this standard will be submitted by ASTM International, the U.S. administrator for this committee.

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Mar. 31, 2010.

3. The third announced item is a bit more complicated, and concerns the AFNOR Appeal of ISO/DIS 26324, Digital object identifier system.

This ballot is to obtain a US position on the question:
“Do you support the AFNOR appeal [for ISO/DIS 26324, Digital object identifier system] based on the information provided in document ISO/TC 46 N2232?” [Note: AFNOR is the French standards body -- equivalent to ANSI in the U.S.]

NISO is recommending a NO vote on this ballot. Todd Carpenter, Director of NISO, has announced the following:

“To help educate the community–both nationally and internationally–, NISO will be hosting an open teleconference on January 6th at 10:00 am EST with Norman Paskin (International DOI Foundation) and Brian Green (International ISBN Agency) to discuss the working group’s activities and the potential benefits to using the DOI in conjunction with other SC 9 identifiers.”

Cindy notes: “I have not yet received information from Todd about the open teleconference on Jan. 6, but such events are generally listed on NISO’s events page.”

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Jan. 6, 2010.

The standard in question, ISO/DIS 26324, is currently at ballot and can be accessed directly at this URL: http://www.niso.org/apps/org/workgroup/tc46ballots/ballot.php?id=139

In the absence of other recommendations, ALA will recommend that NISO vote NO on this appeal.

On behalf of ALA, Cindy will be providing feedback to NISO as to whether ALA believes that NISO should approve or disapprove the ballots or questions at issue. NISO staff will review and consider our feedback along with that received from numerous other voting members.

ALA members who wish to see a copy of the documents noted above for the purpose of offering comments prior to the deadline should contact Cindy directly at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu. (If possible, copy me on requests as well — metadata.maven@gmail.com). Please be sure to let Cindy know that you ARE a current ALA member – she cannot send you a document without this assurance. Keep in mind that the holidays may delay responses, and be sure and make you requests for documents well before the deadlines.

Best wishes to all this holiday season!

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

The Midwinter Happy Hour is set for Friday 15 January 2010 from 5-7 at the Capiz Bar in the Reinassaince Waterfront Hotel.

Capiz Bar

Inspired by the waterfront, the décor is awash with vibrant hues of blue and gold. At the bar enjoy a perfectly mixed martini, a freshly muddled mojito, classic drinks, local beers and wines and appetizers such as a salumi platter or creamy crab dip.

We have the area they call the library reserved for us.

Renaissance® Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210
617-338-4111

NISO has released a number of announcements about standards of particular interest to librarians, which have been forwarded to us by Cindy Hepfer, the ALA Voting Representative to NISO. In order to avoid a lot of repetition of instructions, I will include them all in this post, with enough information to pique your interest (I hope) in looking closer at them and perhaps commenting. Because these are NISO standards, you will be able to view and download them directly, rather than having to request them through Cindy.

In accordance with NISO procedures, all review ballots are accompanied by a recommendation from the responsible leadership committee. The first four standards are recommended for reaffirmation by NISO’s Content and Collection Management Topic Committee (Disclosure: I’m a member of that Committee). The last standard is recommended for reaffirmation by NISO’s Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee. When either committee has included some contextual information along with that recommendation, I’ve included it below.

NISO encourages us to provide comments with ALA’s vote that might provide the Topic Committees with additional information regarding use of the standards. The deadline for feedback to Cindy (HSLcindy@buffalo.edu) regarding these ballots is Jan. 6, 2010. Wouldn’t reading and commenting on one (or more) of these standards be a great thing to do for your community this holiday season?

1. Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.18-2005, Scientific and Technical Reports – Preparation, Presentation, and Preservation.

URL for download: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-18-2005

2. ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005, Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies.

URL for download: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-19-2005

“This recommendation is made based on feedback of current use of this standard; the openness and availability of NISO standards; and because of the current activity in this area, particularly as relates to interoperability, with SKOS, and at the ISO level. At the ISO level, this standard relates to ISO 2788, Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri. There is also ISO 5864, Documentation — Guidelines for the establishment and development of multilingual thesauri. There is currently work underway to merge these two standards, into a new revised ISO standard, ISO 25964-1, Information and documentation — Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies — Part 1: Thesauri for information retrieval. This is currently at DIS ballot, to close March 26, 2010. There is also a part 2 being developed, Information and documentation — Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies — Part 2: Interoperability with other vocabularies. This is still in development.”

3. Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.29-2005, Bibliographic References.

URL for download: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-29-2005

4. Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.84-2005, Syntax for the Digital Object Identifier.

URL for download: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-84-2005

“This recommendation is made based on current activity related to this standard. At this time, the whole DOI system (syntax, resolution, metadata, and unifying infrastructures) is proceeding through ISO, with an expected publication in 2010. Following reaffirmation and upon finalization of the ISO effort, the Topic Committee will be studying the standard more closely to determine if revision might be needed for Z39.84. Feedback from the Z39.84 Maintenance Agency (the International DOI Foundation) regarding some changes needed to the standard has already been received. You are encouraged to provide comments with your vote that might provide the TC with additional information regarding needs for a revision or about current use of the standard. Please note that a revision can begin at any time following the reaffirmation of the current standard.”

5. Review of ANSI/NISO Z39.88-2004, The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services.

URL for download: http://www.niso.org/standards/z39-88-2004

I hope that some of you will take up the challenge here and take a new look at some of these standards and make comments to Cindy (feel free to start discussions on the LITA-L list about any concerns you might have).

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

New announcements from Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting Representative to NISO are coming along quickly, and these are, for the most part, of more general interest to libraries. The first of these is ISO 3166-1:2006, Country codes.

“This part of ISO 3166 establishes codes that represent the current names of countries, dependencies, and other areas of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of lists of country names obtained from the United Nations. It is intended for use in any application requiring the expression of current country names in coded form; it also includes basic guidelines for its implementation and maintenance.”

“This standard is managed differently from other ISO standards due to the ongoing changes to or additions of country codes. The maintenance agency regularly issues a newsletter with new or changed codes. Those codes are added to the standard’s country code database and become usable when the newsletter is issued. So it is not necessary to revise the standard just to incorporate those new codes. The main reason for voting for a revision would be if the “principles” for establishing the codes, as defined in the standard, need to be changed or updated. There is already a corrigendum (correction supplement) for the standard, which is also included as a reference to this ballot. If the standard were to be revised, these corrections would be merged to the revision. For more information on the ISO 3166-1 standard and how it is managed, see: http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes.htm“

As usual, these ISO standards documents are not openly available, but ALA members can request documents for the purpose of review and comment from Cindy at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu (please copy me at metadata.maven@gmail.com). Please be sure to state explicitly that you ARE a current ALA member — Cindy cannot send you a document without this assurance.

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Monday, Feb. 15, 2010.

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

The second group of standards announcements passed to us by busy Cindy Hepfer, ALA Voting Representative to NISO, concern standards for paper for permanence and archival uses.

1. Systematic Review, IS0 9706:1994, Paper for documents – Requirements for permanence.

“The purpose of this International Standard is to provide a means of specifying and identifying paper that, according to the present state of knowledge, has a high degree of permanence and is likely to undergo little or no change in properties that influence readability and handling when stored in a protected environment for long periods of time.”

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010.

2. IS0 11108:1996, Archival paper – Requirements for permanence and durability.

“This International Standard specifies the requirements for archival paper. It is applicable to unprinted papers intended for documents and publications required for permanent retention and frequent use. For these documents and publications, paper of high permanence and high durability is required.”

Deadline for comments to Cindy is no later than Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2010.

As usual, these ISO standards documents are not openly available, but ALA members can request documents for the purpose of review and comment from Cindy at HSLcindy@buffalo.edu (please copy me at metadata.maven@gmail.com). Be sure to state explicitly that you ARE a current ALA member — Cindy cannot send you a document without this assurance.

In the absence of other recommendations, ALA will recommend that NISO vote to confirm these standards. If you believe ALA should recommend another option, you must provide comments for Cindy to pass along with ALA’s recommendation.

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

LITA is offering two full-day educational workshops on Friday, January 15, 2010 in Boston, MA.

Karen Coombs is presenting Creating Library Web Services: Mashups and APIs: del.icio.us subject guides, Flickr library displays, YouTube library orientation; with mashups and APIs, it’s easier to bring pieces of the web together with library data. Learn what an API is and what it does, the components of web services, how to build a mashup, how to work with PHP, and how to create web services for your library. Participants should be comfortable with HTML markup and have an interest in learning about web scripting and programming and are encouraged to bring a laptop for hands-on participation.

In addition, Brenda Reeb of the University of Rochester is presenting Writing for the Web:
Participants will learn how to present text and words on a webpage in ways that enhance findability and readability of webpage content. Participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on writing during the workshop and critique web copy on sites selected by the presenter. Leave the workshop with quick-fixes you can apply to your site immediately as well as strategies for tackling long range projects that will enhance the quality of your library website.

Visit the ALA Midwinter Meeting registration page to register for these events.

Please note, you do not have to register for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in order to attend these workshops.

You may also add a workshop to your existing Midwinter registration by calling ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084.