-------- Original Message --------
Subject: NISO Serials Study Underway
Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 12:08:35 -0400
From: Marilyn Geller <marilyn.geller@MINDSPRING.COM>

Bethesda, Md., USA – (April 8, 2002) NISO, the National Information
Standards Organization has been asked to undertake the development of a
national standard to facilitate the exchange of serials subscription
information.  In evaluating this suggestion the Standards Development
Committee concluded that further information is needed before NISO can
launch standards development work. Over the next two months, NISO will
survey the leaders in the serials community, systems staff, and
librarians
to learn more about this issue with the goal of making an informed
decision
about the viability of a national standard on this topic.  Funding from
the
Digital Library Federation will support this research.

Information aggregators, publishers, third party service providers, and
libraries engage in a number of recurring business-to-business
transactions
requiring the exchange of serial subscription information. At this time
there is no standard to facilitate this information exchange.  This
survey
will explore the needs for serials subscription information exchange,
the
formats now being used and views on the need for and usefulness of a
national standard for serials subscription information exchange; the
study
will also measure the need and support for a standard designation for
subscribers and services.

NISO has engaged Ed Jones to conduct a telephone and email survey. Based
on
the findings, Jones will draft a White Paper describing the current and
potential applications for exchanging serials subscription information
between libraries, publishers, aggregators, and third party services.
The
final report will be made available to all NISO members in June 2002. If
you
would like to participate in the survey, please contact Pat Harris
(pharris@niso.org), NISO Executive Director.

About NISO:
NISO is the only U.S. group accredited by the American National
Standards
Institute to develop and promote technical standards for use in
information
delivery services providing voluntary standards for libraries,
publishers
and related information technology organizations.  All NISO standards
are
developed by consensus under the guidance of experts and practitioners
in
the field to meet the needs of both the information user and the
producer.
For information about NISO’s current standardization interests and
membership possibilities, please visit the NISO website at
http://www.niso.org.

For additional information contact NISO Headquarters at (301) 654-2512.
Email: nisohq@niso.org