[nfais-l] NISO Announces New Special Interest Group on EBook

[Jill O'Neill]

NISO Launches E-book Special Interest Group 
New group will foster collaborative work, incubate new initiatives, and
provide education

 

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and its Architecture
Committee are pleased to announce the creation of a Special Interest Group
focused on E-books (the NISO E-book SIG). Simultaneous with the formation of
the group, NISO is issuing a call for participation in the E-book SIG and
its associated monitoring group. The E-book SIG will explore a range of
industry best practices and standards related to the creation, distribution,
discovery, delivery, and preservation of digital book content. The primary
responsibilities of the group will be to continuously monitor and review the
state of the industry for e-books and to suggest areas for new initiatives
within NISO or areas where NISO can engage with other communities on e-book
work underway outside of NISO. The group will also host thought leader
meetings and commission relevant research to advance the state of the
industry.

 

While NISO is best known for shepherding groups focused on a specific
problem through the creation and implementation of recommended practices and
standards, NISO’s new strategic initiatives seek to widen its outreach
within the information industry. Specifically, the NISO Board and
Architecture Committee seek to emphasize NISO’s role as a facilitator within
the industry, one that can foster cross-community dialogue in a given
topical area and provide a place for the incubation of ideas even if no
formal standards process within NISO is ever initiated as a result. 

 

In line with this strategy, the E-book SIG will explore the larger context
in which development initiatives are unfolding, by addressing some of the
following foundational questions:

 

§  How can NISO actively facilitate cross-community dialogue in this area,
building bridges between what are now separate, sometimes disparate groups?

§  How can NISO work collaboratively to provide education and information to
assist with this dialogue?

§  How can NISO actively foster “incubation teams” to identify specific pain
points in the e-books realm that could be remedied through formal standards,
recommended practices, dissemination of information (e.g., via white papers,
educational workshops, professional forums, Thought Leader meetings, etc.)
either through NISO or within another agency or in partnership with one or
more organizations?

 

Initially, the NISO E-book SIG will identify relevant ongoing or proposed
work related to e-books, then begin outreach to the communities within the
library, publishing, information system, and scholarly communication
communities actively engaged in some aspect of e-book development and
support.   

 

The NISO Architecture committee is seeking nominations for experts
interested in actively participating in the core E-book SIG from all areas
of the community. In addition to the core group, a larger monitoring group
will also be established to receive updates from the core group and provide
feedback. NISO encourages any organization actively engaged in this area to
contact the NISO office via email (nisohq at niso.org) to participate. Please
indicate if you are interested in the core group or the monitoring group.

 

 

Jill O'Neill

Director, Planning & Communication

NFAIS

(v) 215-893-1561

(email) jilloneill at nfais.org

 

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