Foreword

(This foreword is not part of the American National Standard for Information Services and Use: Metrics & statistics for libraries and information Providers-Data Dictionary, ANSI/NISO Z39.7-2004 and is intended for information only.)

This standard was first published in 1968 as ANSI Z39.7-1968, reaffirmed in 1974, and revised in 1983 (ANSI Z39.7-1983), and in 1995 (ANSI/NISO Z39.7-1995). This is the third revision of Z39.7.

This revision takes the path of developing an interactive web-based utility for identifying standard definitions, methods and practices relevant to library statistics activities in the United States (US). Like the previous editions of Z39.7 the aim of the standard remains: to assist librarians and researchers [now defined as the information community] by indicating and defining useful quantifiable information to measure the resources and performance of libraries and to provide a body of valid and comparable data on American libraries.

This revision differs significantly from its predecessors in its approach. The charge to Standards Committee AY charge to revise the standard closely matched recommendations from the NISO FORUM ON PERFORMANCE MEASURES AND STATISTICS FOR LIBRARIES, held February 15-16, 2001 in Washington, D.C. At this Forum, current standards and best practices for library statistics and performance measures were discussed and identified as critical to the next edition of Z39.7. This revision absorbs the de facto definitions established through the national program for collecting data about libraries (i.e., the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) survey program), and absorbs relevant US association definitions, methods and practices of data collection. The value of this approach is that it recognizes the guidelines and best practices in the area of library statistics across the community, not only at the national survey level. As in the 1995 edition, most of the data elements included here appeared on one or more of the national and association surveys. In addition, relevant definitions from the international standard ISO 2789 developed by the International Organization for Standardization have been incorporated. Many other valuable resources were taken into account in the course of this revision. The appendices to this standard list the publications and projects considered. The work of Standards Committee AY is documented at http://www.niso.org/committees/ay/

Suggestions for improving this standard are welcome. They should be sent to the National Information Standards Organization, 4733 Bethesda Avenue, Suite 300, Bethesda, MD 20814 USA, telephone (301) 654-2512.

This Standard was processed and approved for submittal to ANSI by the National Information Standards Organization. NISO approval of this Standard does not necessarily imply that all Voting Members voted for its approval. At the time it approved this Standard, NISO had the following members:

NISO Voting Members

3M
Susan Boettcher
John Nelson (Alt)

American Association of Law Libraries
Robert L. Oakley
Mary Alice Baish (Alt)

American Chemical Society
Matthew Toussant

American Library Association
Betty Landesman

American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T)
Gail Thornburg

American Society of Indexers
Judith Gibbs

American Theological Library Association
Myron Chace

ARMA International
Diane Carlisle

Armed Forces Medical Library
Diane Zehnpfennig
Emily Court (Alt)

Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA)
Mark Bresnan

Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
Betsy A. Fanning

Association of Information and Dissemination Centers (ASODOC)
Marjorie Hlava

Association of Jewish Libraries
Caroline R. Miller
Elizabeth Vernon (Alt)

Association of Research Libraries
Duane E. Webster
Julia Blixrud (Alt)

Auto-Graphics, Inc.
Paul Cope

Barnes and Noble, Inc.
Douglas Cheney

Book Industry Communication
Brian Green

California Digital Library
Daniel Greenstein
John Kunze (Alt)

Cambridge Information Group
Michael Cairns
Matthew Dunie (Alt)

Checkpoint Systems, Inc.
Douglas Karp
Frank Palazzo (Alt)

The Cherry Hill Company
Cary Gordon

College Center for Library Automation (CCLA)
Richard Madaus
Ann Armbrister (Alt)

Colorado State Library
Brenda Bailey-Hainer
Steve Wrede (Alt)

CrossRef
Edward Pentz
Amy Brand (Alt)

Davandy, L.L.C.
Michael J. Mellinger

Docutek Information Systems
Philip Kesten
Slaven Zivkovic (Alt)

Dynix Corporation
Lynn Thackery
Gail Wanner (Alt)

EBSCO Information Services
Gary Coker

Oliver Pesch (Alt)

Elsevier Science Inc.
Paul Mostert

Endeavor Information Systems, Inc.
Sara Randall
Shelly Hostetler (Alt)

Entopia, Inc.
Igor Perisic

Ex Libris
James Steenbergen

Fretwell-Downing Informatics
Robin Murray

Gale Group
Katherine Gruber
Justine Carson (Alt)

Geac Library Solutions
Eric Conderaerts
Eloise Sullivan (Alt)

GIS Information Systems, Inc.
Candy Zemon
Paul Huf (Alt)

H.W. Wilson Company
Ann Case
Patricia Kuhr (Alt)

Helinski University Library
Juha Hakala

Index Data
Sebastian Hammer
David Dorman (Alt)

Infotrieve
Jan Peterson

Innovative Interfaces, Inc.
Gerald M. Kline
Betsy Graham (Alt)

Institute for Scientific Information
Carolyn Finn

The International DOI Foundation
Norman Paskin

Ithaka/JUSTOR/ARTstor
David Yakimischak
Bruce Heterick (Alt)

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Eric Swanson

KINS, Inc.
Myung-Jong Ki
Young-Jun Choi (Alt)

Library Binding Institute
Joanne Rock

Library of Congress
Sally H. McCallum

The Library Corporation
Mark Wilson
Ted Koppel (Alt)

Los Alamos National Laboratory
Richard E. Luce

Lucent Technologies
M.E. Brennan

Medical Library Association
Nadine P. Ellero
Carla J. Funk (Alt)

MINITEX
Cecelia Boone
William DeJohn (Alt)

Modern Language Association
Daniel Bokser
B. Chen (Alt)

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
Axel as der Muhlen

MuseGlobal, Inc.
Kate Noerr
Cliford Hammond (Alt)

Music Library Association
Mark McKnight
David Sommerfield (Alt)

National Agricultural Library
Eleanor G. Frierson
Gary K. McCone (Alt)

National Archives and Records Administration
Nancy Allard

National Library of Medicine
Betsy L. Humphreys

National Security Agency
Kathleen Dolan

NFAIS
Marjorie Hlava

Nylink
Mary-Alice Lynch
Jane Neale (Alt)

Online Computer Library Center, Inc.
Thomas Hickey

Openly Informatics
Eric Hellman

Proquest Information and Learning
Thomas Hamilton
Carol Brent (Alt)

Random House, Inc.
Laurie Stark

Recording Industry Association of America
Bruce Block
Carlos Garza (Alt)

RLG
Lennie Stovel
Joan Aliprand (Alt)

RLG
Lennie Stovel
Joan Aliprand (Alt)

Sage Publications
Anthony Ross
Carol Richman (Alt)

Serials Solutions, Inc.
Mike McCracken

SIRSI Corporation
Greg Hathorn
Slavko Manojlovich (Alt)

Society for Technical Communication (STC)
Frederick M. O'Hara, Jr.
Annette Reilly (Alt)

Society of American Archivists
Lisa Weber

Special Libraries Association (SLA)
Foster J. Zhang

Synapse Corporation
Trish Yancey
Dave Clarke (Alt)

TAGSYS, Inc.
John Jordon
Anne Salado (Alt)

Talis Information Ltd
Terry Wilan
Katie Anstock (Alt)

Triangle Research Libraries Network
Mona C. Couts

U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST,
Office of Information Services

U.S. Department of Defense, DTIC (Defense Technical Information Center)
Richard Evans
Jane L. Cohen (Alt)

U.S. DOE, Office of Scientific & Technical Information
Ralph Scott
Karen Spence (Alt)

U.S. Government Printing Office
Judith Russell
T.C. Evans (Alt)

U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS)
Robert Molyneux

VTLS, Inc.
Carl Grant

WebFeat
Todd Miller
Paul Duncan (Alt)

NISO Board of Directors
At the time NISO approved this standard, the following individuals served on its Board of Directors:

Jan Peterson, Chair
Infotrieve

Carl Grant, Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
VTLS, Inc.

Beverly C. Lynch, Immediate Past Chair
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies

Michael J. Mellinger, Treasurer
Davandy, L.L.C.

Patricia R. Harris, Executive Director/Secretary
National Information Standards Organization

Douglas Cheney
Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Brian Green
BIC/EDItEUR

Daniel Greenstein
California Digital Library

Deborah Loeding
The H.W. Wilson Company

Richard E. Luce
Los Alamos National Laboratory

Robin Murray
Fretwell- Downing Informatics

James Neal
Columbia University

Oliver Pesch
EBSCO Information Services

Patricia Stevens
OCLC, Inc.

Eric Swanson
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.