NISO Plus: The Urgent and Indispensable Gathering

Letter from the Executive Editor, February 2026

The time right before one hosts a big event is always filled with anxiety and stress, but also eager anticipation. The team at NISO are experiencing all those emotions as we put the final details into place for the NISO Plus conference. Stepping back from the details, it is worth reflecting on the purpose of the event and why we’re working so hard to bring the community together. Certainly, we hope to connect people, to educate and enlighten. Most importantly, we need to come together at this time and in this environment to ponder what our priorities should be and how can we advance them. 

From the outset, NISO Plus was always envisioned as being something greater than simply a community gathering or an educational event. We structure the event around identifying and discussing problems and challenges that NISO can help the information community address. While there are sessions that aim to be informative, much of the program is centered on conversation. These discussions offer opportunities to pose potential solutions, which can ultimately lead to projects yielding outcomes that move us forward. Of course, not every discussion will lead to a project idea, nor will every idea be launched, nor every project completed and widely adopted. The goal is to foster those conversations, encourage those ideas, and work toward addressing those issues we collectively face.

Many events, discussions, and initiatives suffer from a lack of urgency. There is no shortage of concerns and problems. We need to ask ourselves what the most pressing problems are; where the biggest barriers or inefficiencies lie; and if we could just remove this barrier—whatever it may be—how much more effective could we be. As we proceed with ever fewer resources in our community, projects that are not solving a big enough problem or lack the urgency to address a community need will suffer. This lack of necessity causes projects to fall behind, because in the long list of work priorities, solving community issues that might not have a discernible and practical return will be deprioritized. Over the years, many projects have languished, because other more pressing priorities have pulled attention away from their goals, which led to efforts not reaching completion or faltering at the point of implementation.

As we prepare for the upcoming conversations at NISO Plus, be you a speaker, an attendee, or simply a person who is keen to hear the outcomes, consider this key question: What will this project do for your organization’s return on the investment to create or deploy it?  What will it be worth for your organization to have this problem solved? Is it a small irritation, or is it a massive barrier to growth, savings or deployment? If we could only advance one project in 2026, would this be the one?

These questions go to a larger consideration of the value that NISO brings to our partners, our members, and the broader community as part of our strategic plan. The NISO Architecture Committee is currently revising its approach to considering new projects and reviewing its practice of monitoring ongoing projects. The goal is to build even more rigor into the vetting process and review of projects’ progress. We want to set a higher bar for NISO’s work and the impacts it can have.

Registration for the meeting is still open. You can still engage in these conversations. You can play a role in setting our future vision and help plan our next great effort. We all want to help each other, but fundamentally, the work of standards is to make you and your organization more efficient and effective. The metric of our success should be measured in your organizational ROI, both in terms of your engagement in the discussions we foster, in your investments of time and resourcing in NISO standards work, and your membership in our community.

I look forward to seeing many of you in Baltimore in a few weeks. Of course, for those who can’t join us, we certainly welcome your contributions in the discussions and work that will result from the dialogues that will begin at NISO Plus.

Sincerely,

Todd A. Carpenter
NISO Executive Director