STS Continuous Maintenance Procedures

Procedures for Proposing Changes to ANSI/NISO Z39.102: STS: Standards Tag Suite

ANSI/NISO Z39.102: STS: Standards Tag Suite standard is maintained under continuous maintenance procedures, in accordance with NISO Operating Procedures Section 7.6 and ANSI Essential Requirements Section 4.7.2.  

This document was approved by the STS Standing Committee on November 9, 2018 and the NISO Information Creation & Curation Topic Committee on February 8, 2019.  Under continuous maintenance procedures anyone may propose changes at any time. Each change will be considered by the Z39.102 STS Standing Committee according to a definite schedule, shown in Section 2 below. The Standing Committee and NISO leadership committees may also propose changes.

The Standing Committee shall follow the procedures below in lieu of periodic maintenance and stabilized maintenance procedures. All changes to the Z39.102 standard shall be submitted in compliance as described below.
 

Section 1. Instructions for Submittal of Proposed Change to ANSI/NISO Standard Z39.102 Under Continuous Maintenance

Comments or proposals for revisions to any part of the standard may be submitted in writing (including electronically) to NISO at any time. Submissions must be accompanied by the submitter’s name, affiliation, and e-mail address.

Written comments are to be submitted via the NISO web site, to a form linked from the STS Committee page at https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/sts

If it is not possible for the submitter to access the web form, alternatively, comments may be sent to:

National Information Standards Organization (NISO) - ANSI/NISO Z39.102
Attn: Standards Program Manager
3600 Clipper Mill Road, Suite 302
Baltimore, MD 21211
Tel.: 301-654-2512 (main) 
Fax: 410-685-5278
E-mail: nisohq@niso.org

In addition, the following person(s) may be contacted by those interested in submitting changes:

Bruce Rosenblum
Co-chair, ANSI/NISO Z39.102 Standing Committee

Inera, Inc.
E-mail: bruce@inera.com

Robert Wheeler
Co-chair, ANSI/NISO Z39.102 Standing Committee
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
E-mail: wheelerr@asme.org
 

Section 2. Maintenance Review Schedule

All submittals received by NISO or the Standing Committee chairs are acknowledged and forwarded to the STS Standing Committee for consideration. 

The Standing Committee will schedule meetings via teleconference or in person when a sufficient number of substantive comments for review have been received, but in any case no less frequently than once a year if there are unaddressed comments, with meetings to be held more often at the discretion of the co-chairs.

The Standing Committee will inform submitters of the disposition of their proposals within one month following each meeting.
 

Section 3. Resolution of Proposed Changes

The STS Standing Committee may respond to submissions in the following ways:

a. Proposed change accepted without modification
b. Proposed change accepted with modification
c. Proposed change accepted for further study
d. Proposed change rejected

Proposed changes are resolved through consensus reached by Standing Committee discussion. (According to ANSI Essential Requirements, “Consensus means substantial agreement has been reached by directly and materially affected interests. This signifies the concurrence of more than a simple majority, but not necessarily unanimity. Consensus requires that all views and objections be considered, and that an effort be made toward their resolution.”)

Responses to submissions shall be recorded in a change log which will be posted to the STS Committee page at https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/sts and circulated to the sts-announce mailing list (https://groups.niso.org/lists/sts-announce/).

The Standing Committee shall provide reasons for its responses and an estimated schedule for any action. Proposed changes accepted for further study will be again brought to the Standing Committee for final resolution no later than the next annual review period.

All submitted changes and Standing Committee responses will be recorded and made available linked from https://www.niso.org/standards-committees/sts. In addition, NISO staff will send notifications to the sts-announce mailing list (https://groups.niso.org/lists/sts-announce/) when any maintenance activity occurs to the standard.

Interested parties can subscribe to the sts-announce mailing list by sending email to sts-announce-subscribe@list.niso.org 

When a sufficient number of accepted changes have been accumulated, but no later than four years after the previous approval date, the STS Standing Committee will prepare a revision of the standard and the revision will be processed according to the NISO Operating Procedures provisions for balloting and approving a revised standard (Section 7.5).
 

Section 4. Publication of a New Edition or Reaffirmation

A new edition of a standard under continuous maintenance shall occur within five years of the prior publication date. An existing standard that has not been revised for four (4) years of the original publication date shall be reviewed at the beginning of the fourth year. If it is determined that the standard is needed but that no modification is required, action to reaffirm the standard shall be initiated.

Any comments about these Continuous Maintenance procedures in general may be sent via email to nisohq@niso.org.