Welcome!
NISO has a long history of organizing the community to remove barriers to discovery, retrieval, management and preservation of published content. We bring together libraries, publishers, information systems vendors engaged in information exchange to develop technical standards and other consensus documents, disseminate information about those projects and other initiatives ongoing in our community, as well as educate the community about technological advances affecting the information exchange community.
As the tools and methods of creating, disseminating and managing information have changed, so too has NISO. Over the past few years, we have worked to improve our
procedures
, streamline development
processes
, and enhance our
outreach programs
. This has had the effect of reducing our time to release of consensus documents, such as
SUSHI
and
SERU
, and speed the process for launching new initiatives, such as
KBART
,
JATS
,
ResourceSync
, and the
Open Discovery Initiative
.
I encourage all members of our community to become engaged in every aspect of
NISO's work
. Please
contact the NISO office
if you have any questions about NISO's work program, have a suggestion, or would like to
join our community
. We look forward to hearing from you.
With kindest regards,
Todd Carpenter
Executive Director
About NISO
NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (
ANSI
), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation.
Founded in 1939, incorporated as a not-for-profit education association in 1983, and assuming its current name the following year, NISO draws its support from the communities it serves. The leaders of over 70 organizations in the fields of publishing, libraries, IT, and media serve as its voting members. Hundreds of experts and practitioners serve on NISO working groups, committees, and as officers of the association.
Throughout the year NISO offers cutting-edge programs on standards issues and exploratory workshops on emerging topics. These discussions often lead to the formation of committees to develop new standards.
NISO recognizes that standards must reflect global needs and that our community is increasingly interconnected and international. Designated by ANSI to represent U.S. interests as the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Organization for Standardization's (
ISO
)
Technical Committee 46 on Information and Documentation
. NISO also serves as the Secretariat for
Subcommittee 9 on Identification and Description
, with Todd Carpenter serving as the SC 9 Secretary. NISO is well positioned to bring together all interested parties, wherever they are based.
NISO Mission Statement
NISO fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning.