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NISO is where content publishers, libraries, and software developers turn for information industry standards that allow them to work together. Through NISO, all of these communities are able to collaborate on mutually accepted standards — solutions that enhance their operations today and form a foundation for the future.

NISO News

NISO Welcomes NGA as a Voting Member (July 21, 2010)
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) as NISO’s newest voting member. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, NGA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense and a member of the national Intelligence Community. They develop imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U. S. national defense, homeland security, and safety of navigation. NGA has provided support during Hurricane Katrina, the Olympic Games in Athens, Haiti earthquake recovery efforts, and the current oil spill in the Gulf. They maintain GEOINT Online (GO)--a grouping of web-based capabilities for geospatial intelligence content, services, expertise, and support--and the GEOnet Names Server (GNS)--the official repository of foreign place-name decisions approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. NGA is a major user of country codes and has a strong interest in the ISO 3166 Country Codes standard. They are also participants on the INCITS L1 standards committee for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that includes several geographic information metadata standards and the Geography Markup Language. Trent C Palmer, Geographer, is NGA’s primary representative to NISO. Marcus Allsup, Senior Toponymist, is the alternate. For more information on NGA, visit their website: www.nga.mil

NISO Announces New Board Officers to Lead the Organization into 2011 (June 30, 2010)
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) members have elected Bruce Heterick to serve as Vice Chair of the NISO Board of Directors for the 2010-2011 term that begins on July 1, 2010. Janice Fleming, Director of Business and Planning/PsycINFO, American Psychological Association, will transition from the current Vice Chair position to become the Chair of the NISO Board for the 2010-2011 term. Fleming has extensive experience in the publishing and indexing & abstracting businesses. Current Chair, Chuck Koscher, Director of Technology, CrossRef, will become Immediate Past Chair. Read the full press release.

NISO Welcomes Page Foundry as a New Voting Member (July 1, 2010)
Page Foundry, Inc. is NISO's newest voting member. Located in North Barrington, IL, Page Foundry was established by veterans of the consume wireless industry “to remove the inefficiencies in the way digitally-read content is brought to mass-market consumers.” They do this by partnering with publishers, e-reader device manufacturers, and content retailers to provide an end-to-end platform and infrastructure for delivering content to wireless e-reading devices. Dan McFarland, CEO, is Page Foundry’s primary voting representative to NISO. Scott Merkle, Executive Vice President, is the alternate voting representative. To learn more about Page Foundry, visit their webpage at: www.page-foundry.com

Presentations from NISO/BISG Forum, NISO Update Sessions at ALA Annual Now Available (June 30, 2010)
The presentations from two NISO events at the recent 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC are now available on the NISO website. The presentations from the 4th Annual NISO/BISG Forum on the Changing Standards Landscape and from the NISO Update session can be found from on their agenda pages, linked to from www.niso.org/news/events/2010/ala2010/.

NISO and DCMI to Partner on Summer Educational Webinar (June 30, 2010)
NISO and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) are pleased to announce a new educational partnership, starting with an educational webinar on "Dublin Core: The Road from Metadata Formats to Linked Data," to be held Wednesday, August 25th, from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (eastern time).

NISO Announces 2010 Fall Schedule of Educational Programs (June 23, 2010)
NISO's schedule of educational programs for the second half of 2010, includes six webinars; free monthly open teleconferences; an in-person forum; and a joint NISO/DCMI webinar on Augus 25. A "buy 4 and get 2 free" webinar discount program s available for organizations interested in having staff participate in multiple events. NISO's webinars are held on the second Wednesday of each month, except July. A two-part webinar is planned for consecutive Wednesdays in September. An in-person forum on E-Resource Management: From Start to Finish (and Back Again) will be held on October 7th in Chicago, IL. Free teleconferences will be held on the second Monday of every month (except July) to discuss projects underway in NISO. The full schedule of events is available here. 

NISO Publishes Special Digital Preservation Issue of Information Standards Quarterly (June 22, 2010)
The just-published Spring 2010 issue of the Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) magazine is a special issue with the theme of Digital Preservation. ISQ is available free to all NISO members and by subscription. Individual issue copies may also be purchased as supplies last (US: $36; international: $45). Selected articles from each issue are made available for free download. Visit the NISO ISQ webpage (www.niso.org/publications/isq/) for more information. A limited number of ISQ sample issues, including this special issue on Digital Preservation, will be available at the NISO booth (#1410) at the American Library Association (ALA) 2010 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. from June 25-29.

I² Working Group Releases Midterm Release Document; Comments Requested (June 21, 2010)
NISO's Institutional Identifiers (I²) Working Group has just released for comment a Midterm Work to Date document. The purpose of the Midterm Request for Comments is to provide the Working Group with valuable guidance to complete development of the I² standard and to undertake midterm course correction, as needed. In addition to describing the purpose and background of the I² identifier, comments and responses to specific questions are sought in four specific topic areas. Feedback is requested by August 2, 2010.

NISO Announces Six New Standard or Recommended Practice Development Projects (June 18, 2010)
Programs at ALA 2010 Annual Conference to provide more information. There are now more development projects underway than at any time in NISO's history. Experts from interested and affected organizations have volunteered to participate on working groups to develop consensus standards or best practice recommendations for each of the six projects.

IOTA Releases New Logo (June 18, 2010)
See the recently released logo for the IOTA (Improving OpenURLs Through Analytics) Working Group, chaired by Adam Chandler (Cornell University). Visit the IOTA website for the logo and more information on this two-year project.

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