April Two-Part Webinar: RFID Systems for Libraries

A new three-part ISO standard on RFID in Libraries (ISO 28560) has been published (see related story in this issue of Newsline). NISO has a revision underway for the recommended practice, RFID in U.S. Libraries (NISO-RP-6-2008) to provide U.S. implementers with guidance on how to provide RFID in a way that adheres to the ISO work. NISO's two-part April webinar on RFID Systems will provide background on the use of RFID in libraries and bring attendees up-to-date on the recent standards and what they mean to both system vendors and libraries. Part 1 provides a more general overview while Part 2 gets into more technical details. You can register for either or both sessions. There is no requirement to attend Part 1 in order to attend Part 2.

The first part of the webinar, to be held on April 13 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time), will provide a broad look at RFID, giving libraries a better understanding of what RFID tags might do to help libraries and giving attendees some information about how what roles various players in the supply chain play in the provision of RFID tags and associated services. Speakers will provide both a library (user) perspective and the supply chain perspective from both a technology supplier and a service supplier.

The second part, to be held on April 20 from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time), looks more closely at the ISO RFID standard and the NISO Recommended Practice on RFID in U.S. Libraries. This webinar will focus on key portions of the documents to help attendees better understand what they might need to know when implementing RFID locally in order to ensure interoperability. In particular, speakers from NISO's RFID working group will discuss the data model, security issues, and privacy and vandalism.

You may register for either or both parts of the webinar; registrants to both part of the webinar receive a 25% discount. NISO and NASIG members can register at the member rate. There is also a student discount. Can't make it for the live webinar date? Registrants get access to the recorded version for one year. For more information and to register, visit the event webpages: Part 1; Part 2

May Two-Part Webinar: The Future of ILS

Both the back-end and the front-end of the traditional Integrated Library System (ILS) are changing and evolving. The back-end is being impacted by the change to RDA cataloging that has only just begun. The front-end is changing through the integration of the ILS with other systems and a web interface layer as well as the interactivity driven by Web 2.0. RDA implementation is expected to drive additional changes to the user-side of the ILS in ways that are still not fully understood.

NISO's two-part May webinar looks at The Future of the ILS from both of these perspectives. On May 11, Part 1 considers RDA & Cataloging from the perspective of the cataloger and the system vendor. . On May 18, Part 2 looks at User Interaction. Both webinars will be held from 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time). You can register for either or both parts. There is no prerequisite to attend Part 1 if your interest is in Part 2.

RDA holds the promise to more closely align Function Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) and Functional Requirements for Authorities Data (FRAD) to library catalogs. While RDA poses a disruptive shift in current cataloging practices, it also carries with it tremendous potential to move the library catalog into the age of the semantic web. In Part 1 of the two-part webinar series, a cataloger and a systems vendor will talk about what an ideal ILS that incorporates RDA might look like.

In Part 2, the webinar shifts to what the future of the ILS will hold with respect to user interaction. Numerous studies have shown that the typical user goes to Google before going to the library's website. What changes are underway or envisioned that can drive the user back to using the library's system or better yet make the library's data work better in the greater web environment. We're already seeing a Library 2.0 world where many libraries encourage users to add to the bibliographic information supplied by the cataloger. How can we take it even further, going beyond the library system "silo". And what are the implications of an RDA-driven library catalog on the user interface? What happens in a world where RDA can set data free from the library system to be linked to and mashed-up with other data or applications? Part 2 of this webinar looks at developments that are both underway and envisioned for the future to radically change the way the user interacts with the library's data.

You may register for either or both parts of the webinar; registrants to both part of the webinar receive a 25% discount. NISO and NASIG members can register at the member rate. There is also a student discount. Can't make it for the live webinar date? Registrants get access to the recorded version for one year. For more information and to register, visit the event webpages: Part 1; Part 2

Mobile Technologies in Libraries Forum

NISO will be holding a one-day in person forum in Philadelphia on May 20, 2011 on the topic of Mobile Technologies in Libraries. The visibility and utility of mobile hardware, software, and connectivity continue their exponential increase. Libraries are finding it difficult to ignore the implications of a perpetually connected user base that want to use mobile devices to access information resources traditionally confined to desktop or laptop computer access. Library patrons stand to benefit enormously if libraries can effectively offer their information resources in the now-ubiquitous mobile medium.

Topics and speakers for the forum include:

• Introduction: How Standards Fit (or don't fit) in Mobile Computing – Todd Carpenter, Managing Director, NISO


• Opening Keynote – Brian O'Leary, Founder and Principal, Magellan Media


• Using Surveys to Find out What Uses Want with Mobile Devices – Bennett Claire Ponsford, Digital Services Librarian, Texas A&M University Libraries


• MedLine Mobile: The Why, What, and How – Loren Frant, Head of the Health Information Products Unit, National Library of Medicine (NLM)


• Models for Mobile in Teaching and Learning – Chris Millet, Manager of Advanced Learning Projects at Education Technology Services, Penn State University


• Embracing Mobile Devices: Libraries and Mobile Technology – Jason Casden, Digital Technologies Development Librarian, N.C. State University Libraries


• Mobile Interfaces & the Impact on (and Opportunities for) Publisher Content – Speaker TBA


• "Ask Anything" Session – Bring your questions, comments, and ideas to share with the entire group.

The agenda, registration, and hotel information are available on the event webpage. Get the early bird discount by registering before May 1. NISO members and students receive a discounted rate.

Two Draft Standards Issued For Trial Use: DAISY and JATS

Two NISO working groups have completed their development work and issued draft standards for trial use, following approval by the Content and Collection Development Topic Committee.

Authoring and Interchange Framework (NISO Z39.86-201x) is a revision of the 2005 standard, Specifications for the Digital Talking Book. The revised standard is a modular, extensible architecture create conformant profiles for representing digital information resources in XML to produce documents suitable for transformation into different universally accessible formats that are not limited to book content. The standard does not impose limitations on what distribution formats can be created from it; e-text, Braille, large print, and EPUB are among formats that can be produced in conformance with the standard. The standard will be of interest to any organization using an XML authoring workflow, developers and publishers of universally accessible digital publications, and agencies interested in creating profiles for new document types to integrate into distribution formats. The draft standard is available online. Trial users are encouraged to submit comments and report all issues. Identified issues will be evaluated and addressed as needed following the trial and prior to final publication of the standard.

JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite (NISO Z39.96-201x) is a new standard that revises and updates the NLM Archiving and Interchange Tag Suite, commonly referred to as the NLM DTDs. JATS provides a common XML format in which publishers and archives can exchange journal content by preserving the intellectual content of journals independent of the form in which that content was originally delivered. The draft standard defines elements and attributes for describing the textual and graphical content of journal articles as well as some non-article material, such as letters, editorials, and book and product reviews. The draft standard for trial use is available as both an online XML document and a downloadable PDF from the NISO website. An online commenting form is also available for trial users to provide feedback. Supporting documentation and schemas in DTD, RELAX NG, and W3C Schema formats are available on the NLM website.

Both standards have six month trials that end in late September. Following the trial, the respective working groups will revise the standards as needed based on feedback from the trial users and present the standards to the NISO voting members for approval.

Two NISO Standards Reaffirmed

NISO and the American National Standards Institute have approved the reaffirmation of two NISO standards. These standards underwent their regular five-year review where they were recommended for reaffirmation by the Content and Collection Management Topic Committee and approved by the NISO voting members in each of the standards' voting pools. The two standards are:

• ANSI/NISO Z39.43-1993 (R2011), Standard Address Number (SAN) for the Publishing Industry


• ANSI/NISO Z39.87-2006 (R2011), Data Dictionary - Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images

New on the NISO Website

• Call for Nominations for NISO Board of Directors


• Information Standards Quarterly Winter 2011 – available in open access; the full issue and individual articles are available to the public for free download


• NISO and UKSG Announce 30 More Publishers Endorse KBART


• Recording from March 14, 2011 open teleconference on Supplemental Journal Article Materials Working Group


• Presentation slides from the March 9, 2011 NISO Webinar: Patrons, ILL, and Acquisitions


• Presentation slides from the March 16 NISO/DCMI Webinar: Metadata Harmonization: Making Standards Work Together


• SUSHI Server Registry – updates include the Irish Newspaper Archives (INA) and new information for Karger Publishing


• Against the Grain v.23, no.1 included several articles about NISO projects including KBART and IOTA, as noted on the Media Coverage webpage.

BSR/IEEE 2301-201x, Guide for Cloud Portability and Interoperability Profiles (CPIP)

A new project to develop a standard to advise cloud computing ecosystem participants (cloud vendors, service providers, and users) of standards-based choices in areas such as application interfaces, portability interfaces, management interfaces, interoperability interfaces, file formats, and operation conventions. For more information or to participate contact Lisa Yacone.

ISO/IEC 10646:2011, Information technology – Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)

This second edition consolidates all of the contents of Amendments 1 through 8 to the 2003 first edition. It specifies the Universal Coded Character Set (UCS) of over 109 000 characters from the world's scripts. It is applicable to the representation, transmission, interchange, processing, storage, input, and presentation of the written form of the languages of the world as well as additional symbols. ISO/IEC 10646:2011 is aligned with The Unicode Standard, Version 6.0, with the exception of U+20B9 Indian rupee sign that was accelerated into Unicode Version 6.0. The terminology for encoding forms (and encoding schemes) in ISO/IEC 10646 now matches exactly the terminology used in the Unicode Standard.

ISO 28560-:2011, Information and documentation – RFID in libraries

A new three-part standard that specifies a model for the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags for items appropriate for the needs of all types of libraries. It provides the framework to ensure interoperability between libraries in exchange of library items with RFID tags. Part 1: Data elements and general guidelines for implementation specifies the data model, system data elements and user data elements to be used on the RFID tags. Two encoding methods are defined. Part 2: Encoding of RFID data elements based on rules from ISO/IEC 15962 uses an object identifier structure to identify data elements. Part 3: Fixed length encoding deals with the encoding of a basic set of data elements in a fixed length format and the rest of the data elements in optional extension blocks. Parts 2 and 3 are mutually exclusive; the RFID tag would be encoded using only one of the two defined schemes.

COUNTER, Release 4 Code of Practice: Objectives, Timetable and Process for Development

The fourth release of the COUNTER Code of Practice will combine the two existing codes for Journals and Databases and Books and Reference Works. The objectives document describes the plans for that unified release, the inclusion of multimedia works, the functionality of the XML reports, and the use of SUSHI, as well as the implications of the PIRUS2 and Journal Usage Factor projects. A timetable is provided to reach the goal of release in early 2012 and vendor implementation by December 2013.

Microsoft, Intergen and the DAISY Consortium, Save as DAISY for Office 2010 Version 2.5 Beta

This updated version of the Save as DAISY add-in for Office 2010 incorporates a "Lite" version of the DAISY Pipeline transformation tool to create accessible versions of documents. Users can generate the DAISY XML for further processing, or you can generate a fully conforming DAISY file set with full navigation and full text synchronized with audio.

World Wide Web Consortium, Provenance Working Group

W3C has launched a new Provenance Working Group /, whose mission is to support the widespread publication and use of provenance information of Web documents, data, and resources. The Working Group will publish W3C Recommendations that define a language for exchanging provenance information among applications. See the Provenance Working Group Charter for more information.