Specific Case Studies Included for NCIP, SUSHI, and SERU
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the publication of the Fall 2011 issue of the Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) magazine with a special issue theme of Standards Implementation Benefits. "Many people are aware, at least in an abstract way, of the benefits of standards—among them, systems interoperability, faster time to market, improved productivity, and cost savings," states Cynthia Hodgson, ISQ Managing Editor. "But who among us couldn't use some help in explaining these benefits in more concrete ways to customers or suppliers or management or colleagues? In this issue of ISQ, we provide several specific examples of the benefits of implementing standards, ranging from savings in staff time to improved customer service and a way to attract new customers."
In the issue's main feature article, Mary Jackson (Auto-Graphics, Inc.) quantifies the productivity benefits of implementing the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) standard and illustrates the savings with case studies and before and after workflow comparisons. Gary Van Overborg, John Milligan, and Michael Lee (Scholarly iQ) illustrate how their company, in its role as an intermediary between publishers and libraries in providing usage statistics, was able to improve services to both through their implementation of the Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) protocol. Mary E. Marshall (ADC) describes her experience with the American arm of an international publisher as an early implementer of SERU (Shared E-Resource Understanding) to streamline the journal licensing process, saving time and costs for both the publisher and their library customers. John Sack (HighWire) provides an opinion piece to dispel the myth that standards prevent innovation, but explains how instead the two concepts can work together for the benefit of each.
"We're always pleased to see specific examples of how NISO standards and best practices have benefitted the organizations using them," states Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "This issue of ISQ should be of particular interest to anyone who wants to justify their own standards implementation."
ISQ is available in open access in electronic format on the NISO website. Both the entire issue and individual articles may be freely downloaded. Print copies are available by subscription and as print on demand. For more information and to access the free electronic version, visit: www.niso.org/publications/isq/.
About Information Standards Quarterly
Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) is NISO's print and electronic magazine for communicating standards-based technology and best practices in library, publishing, and information technology, particularly where these three areas overlap. ISQ reports on the progress of active developments and also on implementations, case studies, and best practices that show potentially replicable efforts.
About NISO
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. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire lifecycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org. For more information please contact NISO at (301) 654-2512 or via e-mail at nisohq@niso.org.