The Changing Standards Landscape: 16th Annual NISO/BISG Forum Diverse & Sustainable: A Conversation About How Book Publishing Evolves

NISO on the Road

Scope

The last several years have highlighted pressing concerns about social responsibilities and our collective action or inaction. Book publishers have begun to measure diversity in many ways: the books we publish, the authors we sign, the staff we employ, the content we promote, the labor policies we adopt, and more. Increasingly, environmental sustainability has also risen as a concern and become part of industry conversations around making book publishing more inclusive and promoting social justice more generally. Pressingly, we now need to move from talking about change to making an actual difference across the industry. The challenge is about more than just what publishers do: it stretches across the supply chain, affecting manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and libraries, as well. This program will identify primary concerns around diversity and sustainability, document what has been done, outline what more needs to be done, and discuss the obstacles and opportunities that remain.

Speakers: Bill Barry, Environmental Sustainability Advisor, Macmillan Publishers; Todd Carpenter, Executive Director, NISO; Gwen Evans, Vice President, Global Library Relations, Elsevier; Kimberly Gladfelter Graham, Education Program Manager & DEIA Advocate, NISO; George Kerscher, Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium, and President, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF); Brian O’Leary, Executive Director, BISG; Claudia Pilcher, Sustainability Planner, Scholastic Publishing; Ethan Tolpin, Manager of Environmental Sustainability, Macmillan; and Courtney Young, University Librarian, Colgate University. 

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Event Sessions

12:00pm - 12:15pm: Welcome

12:15pm - 12:45pm: What More Needs to Be Done

Speakers

12:45pm - 1:45 pm: Panel Discussion - Sustainability

Speakers

Bill Barry

Environmental Sustainability Advisor
Macmillan Publishers

Brian O’Leary, Executive Director, BISG will moderate this discussion.

1:45pm - 2:00pm: Structured Break

2:00pm - 3:00pm: Panel Discussion - DEIA

Speakers

Gwen Evans

Vice President, Global Library Relations
Elsevier

George Kerscher

Chief Innovations Officer, DAISY Consortium
Senior Officer, Global Literacy, Benetech

Kimberly Gladfelter Graham, NISO Education Program Manager & DEIA Advocate will moderate this discussion

Important Shared Resources:

Training module on accessibility for librarians - This guide will walk you through downloading and opening the module on smart phones, tablets, and personal computers.

The module is in the EPUB format. This is the publishing industry standard for digital books. If you read on Kindle or other popular platforms, you are already using it. We chose EPUB as the format for this module for two reasons. First, it is the most accessible digital book format. Second, reading it will give you practice in using accessible EPUB apps.

The User Experience Guide on Accessibility Metadata - This document proposes a shared framework for presenting publication accessibility metadata in a user-friendly manner.

Examples from VitalSource and RedShelf on the same Biology title by James Morris; Domenic Castignetti; John Lepri; Rick Relyea:

VitalSource: Biology for the AP® Course

RedShelf: Biology for the AP® Course

Roundup of EPUB Reading System accessibility - Digital books are accessed using an app, device, or online service to open, read and navigate the content. We refer to these are Reading Systems.

3:00pm - 3:30pm: Structured Breakouts & Small Group Conversations

3:30pm - 4:00pm: Share & Moderated Discussion - Where do we go from here?

4:00pm: Adjournment

Additional Information

This is an in-person event only. Streaming will not be available to those not attending on site.