2019 Charleston Library Conference

Do your eyes glaze over when you hear about standards? Are standards something for other people to worry about? Are you up to your eyebrows in inconsistent data, proprietary formats, uncertain update timelines and processes, and other detours and dead-ends to essential library and content processes? If so, then you should become familiar with some helpful standards! There’s more to standards than bewildering technical documents, smiling PowerPoints, and cheerful update newsletters. Standards result from a collaborative effort by all stakeholders: libraries, content providers, and technology providers. They are created by real people to solve real problems in real situations. They define transactions, help with workflows, and create consistency across organizations, communities, and stakeholders. Come join Standards Improv to learn how standards affect the scholarly communications, acquisitions, and collection lifecycles. This interactive session will use a unique format. Audience members will role-play skits, using provided scripts (augmented with their own experience) to demonstrate the complexity around standards-making. Each highlighted standard will start with a brief introduction and a member of the standard’s working group will share lessons learned. Using examples from NISO, we will reveal the frictions that slow progress toward launching and updating standards, but also demonstrate how and why we still cooperate to overcome these obstacles. During this interactive session, you will learn how and why to get involved in making standards, as well as gain a more practical understanding for other key stakeholders’ viewpoints. Participants will gain insight into why we persevere through pain points of standards creation to improve exchange and support innovation and take away lessons for better standards engagement at your own institution.