Running Head: INFORMATION STANDARDS

Information Issues: Information Standards Julie Teglovic University of Denver

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Information Standards: What and Why? Standards allow us to communicate with each other and share data within and across institutions. Acting much like language itself, they put vast quantities of information into manageable units we can control and terms we can understand. If I want to write you a letter on paper, post a video to our organization's blog, or share a MARC record with your copy catalogers to save you time and money, we need to first ensure that we share, respectively, a common vocabulary, a consistent video format and size, and a common understanding of what information goes where in the MARC format. Consistency and uniformity in the interest of effective communication are the essential goals of standards. In the 2008 webinar Demystifying Library Standards, presented by the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), Patricia S. Davis and Julia Gammon note that the word "standard" has vast applications in the world—from music to wine to ethics to money—and a paper covering all the aspects and nuances of the word could fill hefty volumes. This brief paper will thus focus on standards mainly in the context of libraries and tangentially in the larger world of information science and the information professions outside libraries. In these contexts, as information becomes ever more inseparable from machines, digital standards that these machines can understand have become more imperative, and computer- and Internet-related standards have risen to the forefront of much of the standardization movement's efforts. Davis and Gammon define standards as they relate to libraries as "common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes" (28). The following sections will elaborate on this definition by discussing the types of library and information standards in general terms, the most important specific standards to recognize right

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now in a library environment, and finally, the various organizations and consortia managing and leading the rapidly growing and changing world of standardization nationally and internationally. Types of Standards Standards are created by groups of people in agreement about an issue: there are local, state, national, and international information standards. Performance standards are quite different from data standards—the first being a way of measuring effectiveness and efficiency in behaviors (such as acquiring skills or defining responsibilities), the latter a way to agree on representations, formats, and definitions of common data. There can be standards for language, for packaging, for products, and for processes. There are information standards we hardly ever think about, from book binding to punctuation in classification schemes. The following are a few of the key standards in a library environment. Major Current Standards in Libraries MARC Despite major attempts at overhaul over the past couple decades and their severe limitations in the digital age, MAchine-Readable Cataloging standards remain the primary method of defining bibliographic data (through item description, main entry and added entries, subject headings, and classification or call numbers) in library catalogs worldwide (Library of Congress, 2009). AACR2 Also subject to much criticism and call for revision (and perhaps soon to be displaced by Resource Description and Access, or RDA), the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd ed., is another internationally used framework that covers "the description of, and the provision of access points for, all library materials commonly collected" (American Library Association,

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2006). MARC entries are currently formatted using AACR2 rules, which cover punctuation and formatting in detail. Z39.50 Z39.50 is a "communication protocol," a national standard that attempts to "get diverse library systems to communicate and share bibliographic information" (Taylor and Joudrey, 2009, p. 183). The protocol "establishes how one computer (the client) can query another computer (the server) and transfer results from one to the other" using three components: "an abstract model of information retrieval activities…a language consisting of syntax and semantics for information retrieval, and…a prescription for encoding search queries and retrieved results for transmission over a network" (Taylor and Joudrey, 2009, p. 183). ISBN/ISSN International Standard Book Numbers and International Standard Serial Numbers are unique 13- and 8-digit numbers, respectively, assigned to each and every publication worldwide by intergovernmental agencies in order for publishers, libraries, booksellers, computers, and patrons/consumers to be able to work together for access and retrieval (R.R. Bowker, 2010 and ISSN, 2008). Programming Languages We often talk of standards in terms of languages in computer science fields outside library work; however, XML and programming languages like PHP, Java, MySQL, and many more are becoming more important for librarians to understand as well, as their institutions' web presences evolve. File Formats

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Nuanced understandings of file formats for sound, image, video, spreadsheets, and datasets are also essential to working in an increasingly online, connected information environment. Vocabulary words like TIF, GIF, MP3, MP4, MPEG, XLS, and ZIP, among many more, are important to understand when discussing file standards. Metadata Much metadata in libraries is understood in terms of standards. LSCH Subject Headings, for example, provide standardized access points for records. These are just the tip of the library standards iceberg, of course. Other buzzwords/concepts to be aware of include Metadata Object Description Standard (MODS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), VRA Core, Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES), and many more. Organizations and Consortia Managing Information Standards Introduced above, NISO is a leader in the push to create information standardization tools. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is another, as "the standards body that establishes standards for the international exchange of goods and services"; ISO was responsible for the development of ISBNs and ISSNs. Also, the American Library Association (ALA) contains standards galore when you delve into the specific subdivisions under its umbrella: the Medical Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Public Library Association—all have dozens if not hundreds of standards available for use. Also, the Library of Congress outlines and promotes a number of resource description format, digital library, and information resource retrieval standards on its website. Finally, the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is a major

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player in metadata standards; one of its primary missions is "developing and maintaining international standards for describing resources" (DCMI, 2011). Standards go through continual processes of proposal, development, workshopping, revision, publication, trial, and review within these organizations. At any given time, several "working groups," staffed voluntarily by librarians and information professionals, are open to aid this process. It can take years to officially approve a new standard. Among the many NISO working standards groups currently in progress are: 

CORE (Cost of Resource Exchange) – "a specification to facilitate the transfer of cost and related financial information from an Integrated Library System (ILS) Acquisitions module (the source) to an Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS)" (National Information Standards Organization, 2011).

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KBART (Knowledge Base and Related Tools) – a group "charged with developing a best practice for supply of data pertaining to e-resources in general" (National Information Standards Organization, 2011).

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DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) Standards – an international association leading the "transition from analog to Digital Talking Books" (DAISY Consortium, 2011) for the hearing-impaired.

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SUSHI (Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative) – "defines an automated request and response model for the harvesting of electronic resource usage data utilizing a Web services framework. It is intended to replace the time-consuming user-mediated collection of usage data reports" ((National Information Standards Organization, 2011).

All of these groups encourage working professionals in the field to participate in the development of their emerging standards.

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Intimately related to the fundamental information science concepts of information explosion, security, and access, information standards seek to provide uniformity and equality in a sea of data. They allow machines and people to communicate with each other and access needed items. There are well-worn standards and emerging new standards to consider in the library world, overseen by international information organizations that encourage new professionals to consider the implications of standards in whatever information environments we end up in and to participate in the conversation to improve access for all.

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American Library Association. (2010). RDA: Resource Description & Access. Retrieved from http://www.rdatoolkit.org/ Daisy Consortium. (2011). DAISY Consortium: About Us. Retrieved from http://www.daisy.org/about_us Davis, T. L. and Gammon, J. (2008). Demystifying Library Standards. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/061808stds.pdf DCMI. (2011). About Us: The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Retrieved from http://dublincore.org/about-us/ International Organization for Standardization (2011). About ISO. Retrieved from http://www.iso.org/iso/about.htm Library of Congress. (2010). Standards at the Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/standards/ National Information Standards Organization. (2011). KBART (Knowledge Base and Related Tools). Retrieved from http://www.niso.org/apps/group_public/workgroup.php?wg_abbrev=kbart Library of Congress. (2009). WHAT IS A MARC RECORD, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/marc/umb/um01to06.html National Information Standards Organization. (2011). Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI). Retrieved from http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi Taylor, A.G. and Joudrey, D. N. (2009). The Organization of Information, 3rd Ed. Westport: Greenwood.