[Asis-l] NISO/BISG Program to Identify Identifiers

[Marilyn Geller]

Bethesda, Md., USA - (May 21, 2002) NISO, the National Information
Standards Organization and BISG, the Book Industry Study Group, will
present a joint program at the American Library Association Annual
Conference in Atlanta in June titled, "Identifiers: What's new, what's
changing!". This program will focus on the ISBN, the DOI, and the ISTC,
three leading identifiers that support resource  management on a broad
scale.  The NISO/BISG program will be held Sunday, June 16th, 4:30 to
6:00 at the Wyndham Atlanta Hotel, Olympic Room A/B.

Identifiers are strings that uniquely name objects independent of their
location and remain valid over long periods of time.  "Identifiers are
important in both the print and digital environments," said Priscilla
Caplan, chair of the NISO Standards Development Committee, who will
moderate the panel discussion.  "This program will give us an
opportunity to examine the identifiers now in use and consider how best
to identify things at levels that  are not handled well now."

Andrew Grabois, Senior Director Publisher Relations and Content for R.
R. Bowker, will discuss the ISBN standard, a unique, international
identification system for books and other monographic publications in
both physical and electronic (digital) formats.  Mr.  Grabois will
report on the proposal to increase the numbering capacity of the ISBN
system and to deal with assignment and use of ISBN in the digital
information environment. 

Albert Simmonds, Business Manager for OCLC Resolution Services will
speak about the ISTC, a voluntary numbering system for the
identification of textual works that will be a unique, internationally
recognized and permanent identifier for each textual work to which it is
assigned. A textual work is defined as any work composed predominantly
of a combination of words such as an article, an essay, a novel, a poem,
a screenplay, or a short story. 

Amy Brand, Director of Business Development for CrossRef, will address
current and prospective uses of CrossRef.  The CrossRef system creates a
mechanism for  members to obtain DOIs by looking up metadata for the
object, and to obtain metadata by looking up DOIs.

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 at niso.org