SLA Standards Update

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SLA Standards Update!

• Pat Harris
• pharris_at_niso.org

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• Thank you!
• Whats up with Standards
• Whats up in NISO
• New directions
• Standards agenda

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Thank You SLA Standards network!

• Your response last fall was terrific
• It brought the attention of SLAs top leadership
  to standards
• The future of libraries will be determined in the
  technology playing field and standards will be
  key determinants

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Whats up with standards

• Rate of technical change is accelerating
• Rate of non-technical change is accelerating
• Importance of IT standards is increasing

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What does this mean?

• User/Consumer standards are more important (even
  if they are still invisible)
• Companies in this marketplace standards are more
  strategic
• Standards developer if you cant do it right
  someone else will.

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The Standards World

• A period of unprecedented change
• Late-1980s sea change
• Rise and proliferation of consortia and
  non-traditional standards organizations
• More competitive environment

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NISOs challenge

• External big guys- W3C, IETF
• Immediate challenges DLF, VIEWS
• New guys are eating our lunch
• Google Scholar
• A9s OpenSearch Amazons search engine

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Strategic Examination

• March 2004 -Survey of NISO members, thought
  leaders
• June 2004 - Blue Ribbon Panel chaired by Clifford
  Lynch
• On NISO website - link from homepage
• www.niso.org

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Strategic Directions and Implementation Steps

• Define a Framework that will examine the
  standards landscape and help identify gaps
• Standards development process
• Consensus pools
• Stabilized Standards Streamline the family of
  active standards

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Implementation Activities

• Focus more attention and support in the upfront
  activities
• The think -through that leads to a standards
• Pre-standards work
• Workshops, white papers, community consensus
  building

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Implementation Activities

• Lighter weight, speedier process
• Registration
• Draft Standards for Trial Use
• Incorporating testing and trial implementation
  into the development cycle, seeking out early
  implementors

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NISOs Standards Development Agenda

• Wrapping things up
• Revision of Z39.19, Controlled Vocabularies
• OpenURL
• ISBN, ISSN

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Standards Development Agenda - In Progress

• MetaSearch Initiative
• Why Libraries need the ability to unify
  searching of heterogeneous sources that apply to
  a specific audience and/or purpose
• Access management, Search, Service and Collection
  Description

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MetaSearch Results- September 2005

• NISO XML Metasearch Gateway
• Best Practice for Authentication based on an
  evaluation and ranking of authentication
  approaches

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Standards Development Agenda - Incubation Stage

• Rights Expression
• Identifiers for digital content
• RFID - Radio frequency identification

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How to be a part of the standards action

• Be a member of the SLA Standards Committee
• Subscribe to NISOs monthly e-letter Newsline
• Talk about standards with the companies you do
  business with

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How to be a part of the standards action

• Support NISO as a Voting Member

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The stakes are high. . . .

• Ken Jennings reminded the members of the Utah
  Information Technology Association
• No piece of information is trivial

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In the End
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• NISO
• www.niso.org
• T 301-654-2512
• Pat Harris