School of Information Management & Systems. Spring 2002.
285   Design of Library Services   M. Buckland.

Assignment 12:   Library Guidelines and Standards.   Due April 26.

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) develops and promotes technical standards used in a wide variety of information services. NISO is a nonprofit association accredited as a standards developer by the American National Standards Institute, the national clearinghouse for voluntary standards development in the U.S.

NISO has developed standards for Information Retrieval (Z39.50), 12083 (an SGML Tool), Z39.2 (MARC Information Interchange Format), Codes for Languages and Countries, and Z39.18 (Scientific and Technical Reports).

The goal in using technical standards in information services, libraries, and publishing is to achieve compatibility and therefore interoperability between equipment, data, practices, and procedures. Using technical standards makes information services more productive. Take a look at the technical standards at www.niso.org/standards/.

The American Library Association website lists a large number of standards, guidelines, and recommendations concerning good practice for a wide variety of library activities. at www.ala.org/work/standards.html

1. Browse through both lists.

2. From each list, pick one standard or guideline that is on interest to you, hand in a brief explanation and summary, adding any comments that you wish to add.

3. Be prepared to discuss in class on April 26.