Distinguished Leaders of Information Industry Focus on Standardization for Tomorrow
BETHESDA, MD - September 7, 2004 - With a charter to evaluate the progress, challenges, and opportunities of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), eleven experts from industry, academia, and the library community have accepted seats on NISO's Blue Ribbon Panel. The Panel will play a central role in the yearlong strategic planning exercise, which NISO's Board of Directors launched in May 2004. The Mellon Foundation has provided funding in support of the Panel. The Panel's formal report will be open for public review and comment later this year.
"We are extremely pleased that Clifford Lynch has agreed to chair the Blue Ribbon Panel of respected community leaders who will provide objective advice and guidance to the Board," noted Jan Peterson, NISO Board Chair and Vice President, Content Development, of Infotrieve, Inc. "The commitment of these highly regarded individuals is further confirmation of the importance of standards in the distribution of information, as well as NISO's role in developing those standards."
Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information, has earned recognition in the information community for his contributions to awareness and understanding of issues facing digital libraries, such as digital rights management and digital preservation. In accepting the role of Panel Chair, he stated, "The landscape for making and using standards has changed drastically in the last few years, raising new issues and choices for NISO. A key goal of this panel is to take a dispassionate, external, and multi-dimensional look at this landscape to offer guidance and frame possible futures for the NISO board, and I am sure I speak for everyone on the panel in saying that we are glad to be of help to NISO at this important juncture in its organizational evolution."
In addition to Lynch, NISO's Blue Ribbon Panel includes (in alphabetical order) Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President of Research, OCLC, Inc.; Karen Hunter, Senior Vice President, Elsevier Science, New York, NY; Ron Larsen, Dean, School of Information Services, University of Pittsburgh; Sarah Ann Long, Director of the North Suburban Library System, Wheeling, Illinois; Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress; Eric Miller, Semantic Web Activity Lead, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); Kent Smith, Retired, former Deputy Director, National Library of Medicine; Diana Oblinger, Vice President for EDUCAUSE; Jenny Walker, Vice President Marketing and Business Development, Information Services Division, Ex Libris (USA), Newton, MA; and Ann Wolpert, Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About NISO
NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. www.niso.org