May 18, 2020 Open Teleconference - ISO TC46 2020 update

The topic for the May open teleconference will be a recap of the ISO TC 46 Plenary meeting, held virtually this year from May 11-15, with international participants connecting across multiple time zones for all associated meetings. (The Plenary week meetings were due to be held in London, UK, hosted by BSI, but were moved online due to the worldwide pandemic.)

Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director, and Nettie Lagace, NISO Associate Executive Director, will discuss the meeting, NISO's role there, and the current questions under consideration in TC 46 conversations. There are many international projects currently underway which have a relationship with and impact on standards work more locally in the United States library and information community. 

TC 46 is an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) technical committee, focused on Information and Documentation. Its scope includes standardization of practices relating to libraries, documentation and information centres, publishing, archives, records management, museum documentation, indexing and abstracting services, and information science. NISO is designated by ANSI to represent U.S. interests as the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to TC46.

Four TC 46 Subcommittees held plenary meetings during this week:

• SC 4 (Technical interoperability),
• SC 9 (Identification and description),
• SC 10 (Requirements for document storage and conditions for preservation),
• SC 11 (Archives/records management),

along with meetings of other subcommittee working and discussion groups and of course the final TC 46 plenary. (The fifth TC 46 Subcommittee, SC 8 (Quality - Statistics and performance evaluation), will hold its meetings in June.)

NISO also serves as the Secretariat for SC 9, with Todd Carpenter serving as the SC 9 Secretary.