New and Emerging Specs & Standards (July 2026)
ISO/TR 23081-4:2026 — Information and documentation — Metadata for records Part 4: Report on metadata element sets
Technical Committee: ISO/TC 46/SC 11
“This document provides an overview of the metadata element sets, developed in different countries and by different organizations according to the ISO 23081 series of standards.”
ISO/IEC 29138-4:2026 — Information technology — User interface accessibility Part 4: Applying user accessibility needs
Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 35
“This document provides guidance on applying the set of user accessibility needs (UANs) to the procurement, development and evaluation of ICT products and services. This includes guidance on documenting the application of user accessibility needs. Applying user accessibility needs helps improve accessibility for all users and in particular for users with special needs that might otherwise be overlooked.”
ISO 24896:2026 — Notation for business reporting
Technical Committee: ISO/TC 37
“This document establishes a standardized notation with consistent design requirements for the results of business reporting, including written reports, presentations and dashboards. The notation specifies requirements for the visual appearance of: recurring visual aspects, such as the layout of charts, tables and text; their characteristics; the labelling of content. This document is applicable to business reporting regardless of an organization’s type, size, location or the nature of products and services delivered. For further guidance on accessibility requirements, refer to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 and ISO/IEC 23859:2023.”
ISO/IEC TS 42112:2026 — Information technology — Artificial intelligence — Guidance on machine learning model training efficiency optimization
Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42
“This document outlines key factors affecting machine learning model training efficiency and presents corresponding optimization approaches. It provides guidance for AI providers and producers through a structured set of characteristics and related optimizations to improve training efficiency. This information can support the evaluation and comparison of various ML training strategies. This document does not specify any training accelerating mechanisms provided and implemented within machine learning computing device described in ISO/IEC TR 17903.”
IFLA Journal, June 2026 [IFLA]
“This issue of IFLA Journal explores how libraries and information institutions are responding to rapid technological, social, and policy transformations across diverse global contexts. A prominent theme is the emergence of artificial intelligence as both an opportunity and a challenge, with articles examining AI governance, AI literacy, regulatory frameworks, and the ethical application of AI in libraries, higher education, and Indigenous heritage preservation. Other contributions address enduring concerns of equity, inclusion, access, and social justice, highlighting efforts to support disadvantaged communities, protect cultural heritage, strengthen confidentiality and ethics in library services and collections. The issue also investigates scholarly communication through studies of open access, predatory publishing, and institutional repositories. Complementing these discussions are analyses of library legislation, school and public library development, reading promotion, and research practices in library and information science. Together, these articles demonstrate libraries’ evolving role as inclusive and innovative institutions adapting to a rapidly changing information environment.”
June 2026 Issue of Information Technology and Libraries [ALA Core]
“The June 2026 issue of the open-access journal Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL, a publication of the American Library Association’s Core division) is now available.”
Human Rights and ICT Standardization: What is W3C doing about this? [W3C Blog]
“On April 14, 2026, in Brussels, I participated on behalf of W3C in the Seminar on Human Rights and ICT Standardization, organized by the European Commission in collaboration with OHCHR and ITU, with the support of StandICT.eu 2029, INSTAR, and InDiCo Global. In the seminar, it was clear that Human Rights in Technical Standardization had entered a new phase. It was no longer about debating whether human rights are relevant to standardization, but about figuring how to bring them into technical processes without turning them into a rhetorical layer added as an after thought, once the architecture, data flows, and responsibilities have already been set.”
ISSN-H: A New Identifier Connecting the Full Story of Continuing Resources [ISSN International Centre]
“The ISSN-H White Paper introduces a new generation of identifier designed to solve a longstanding challenge in scholarly communication: tracking continuing resources across title changes, format variations, and complex publication histories. Building on the ISSN standard’s cluster-based identification model, ISSN-H links all successive titles and related versions of a serial into a single, persistent identifier. The result is a clearer, more comprehensive view of a publication’s lifecycle, improving discovery, citation, metadata management, analytics, and long-term preservation. By connecting fragmented records, ISSN-H reveals the complete history behind continuing resources and their evolving identities.”
