International Standards

Patricia Harris

As the activities and markets of publishers are increasingly internationalized, it becomes vital to understand the process of developing standards that are accepted throughout the world. Patricia Harris describes the procedures used by the International Organization for Standardization to develop such standards, using as examples the development of the ISBN and the ISSN. She then discusses some of the international standards now being developed and offers some predictions about future trends in international standards.

T he past thirty years have witnessed a growth in development of global mar- kets. No longer is a producer or publisher satisfied with developing solely a

national customer base. Today, producers think in terms of an international au- dience and of sharing products and services worldwide. Standards are one tool that can help to build communication links in global systems. In the publishing world, standards provide a common method for description, an agreed-upon method of presentation, an accepted format for communication, and a common way to collect data.

The international standards described here are standards developed using for- mal procedures. However, as with American National Standards, official interna- tional standards are voluntary, and compliance is not required in the United States.

ISO: The International Standards Developer

Official international standards affecting the publishing industry are developed through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an indepen- dent, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva which was formed in 1947. ISO establishes technical committees (TCs) to carry out standards development in specific areas of interest. Today, approximately 165 technical committees touch on every aspect of commerce and industry. The ISO technical committees that work on standards for the publishing community in- clude TC37--Terminology; TC 6--Paper Board and Pulp; TC 46--Information and Documentation; and TC 17I--Micrographics. In addition, the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) develops computer standards that have direct applications to publishing.

Patricia Harris is the executive director of the National Information Standards Organization. Address for correspondence: National Bureau of Standards, Administration 101, Room E-106, Gaithersburg MD 20899.

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Technical Committee 46 on Information and Documentation is responsible for many of the standards that apply specifically to how information should be organized and presented. The scope of TC 46 includes standards for description of publications (title leaves of a book, spine formats), identification systems (the International Standard Book Number), preservation and conservation (paper per- manence), and standards for gathering statistical information on books and serials (see Table 1).

ISO TC 46 is composed of twenty-nine members including all the major Euro- pean countries, the USSR, the Peoples Republic of China, and Japan. The United States has been an active member of Technical Committee 46 for almost forty years and has taken a leadership role in many standardization efforts. The mem- bers of ISO (and the technical committees) are national member bodies. In the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the official representative to ISO. ANSI delegates to expert standards developers the respon- sibility of partidpating in the standards development work. In the United States, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is assigned respon- sibility for representing U.S. interests on ISO Technical Committee 46.

International standards developed through the ISO are, in effect, agreements among the member bodies, so that achieving complete agreement on all elements of the standard is very important. As a result, standards development at the international level is very deliberate and often progresses at a very slow pace.

The actual work of writing a proposed standard is delegated to a working group that brings together experts from the member bodies (countries) that have an interest and expertise in the particular topic for standardization. A working group

ISO 8

ISO 18

ISO 214

ISO 215

ISO 690

ISO 999

ISO 1086

ISO 2108

ISO 2145

ISO 2384

ISO 2788

ISO 3297

ISO 5122

ISO 5123

ISO 5966

ISO 6357

ISO 7144

TABLE 1 Standards for Publishers, Editors, and Others in the Book Industry

Presentation of periodicals

Contents list of periodicals

Abstracts for publications and documentation

Presentation of contributions to periodicals and other serials

Bibliographical references

Index of a publication

Title leaves of a book

International standard book numbering

Numbering of divisions and subdivisions in written documents

Presentation of translations

Guidelines for the establishment and development of monolingual thesauri

International standard serial numbering

Abstract sheets in serial publications

Headers for microfiche of monographs and serials

Presentation of scientific and technical reports

Spine titles on books and other publications

Presentation of theses and similar documents

Harris 7

will meet at most once a year, and a good deal of the group's work is done through the mail.

Typically an international standard will take at least eight years to be approved and an additional year for publication. The full membership of the technical committee meets only once every two years in a plenary session to review the TC's business. Further, at all points in the development process, the member bodies are called on to vote or to provide comments. This very thorough review requires a significant investment in time as the standards development process moves through eight stages:

1. Approval of the work item: All member bodies must ballot to approve a new topic for standardization.

2. Development of the draft proposal: A working group is convened to prepare a first draft.

3. Approval for registration of the first draft: The members of the TC or appropriate subcommittee must approve, by letter ballot or at a meeting, that the proposed standard be registered as a draft proposal.

4. Approval of the first draft in a three-month ballot. 5. Resolution of comments and redrafting of the document completed by the

working group. 6. Approval for registration as a draft international standard and translation

of the document into French. 7. Balloting on the draft international standard in a six-month letter ballot. 8. Final approval by the technical committee and the members of ISO, and

publication of the standard in French and English.

ISO standards, like American National Standards, are reviewed every five years following the last date of publication or reaffirmation to determine whether the standard should be revised, whether the methods described are still sound and the standard should be reaffirmed, or whether the standard is no longer useful and should be withdrawn.

Two of the most important standards produced by TC 46 relate directly to publishers' interests: the International Standard Book Number (ISBN--Interna- tional Standard 2108) and the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN-- International Standard 3297). It is usually very difficult to measure the success of any standard, but that is not the case with the ISBN and the ISSN. Both the ISBN and the ISSN are widely used throughout the world. The usefulness of both standards is becoming more and more apparent as computer-based systems are being adopted in more operations in the publishing industry.

Development of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

Serious discussions on the need for a standard numbering system for the book trade began in 1966 as a result of the publication by the UK Publishers Association of "A Report on Standard Numbering in the Book Trade:' The need for a standard

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numbering system was becoming more and more evident. Publishers were finding that both staff time and money were being spent on verifying order information and correcting errors in order fulfillment. A generally used standard numbering system for the various kinds of publications handled in the book trade was seen as a tool to make the order process more efficient and more economical. As is the hope for all good standards, the ultimate beneficiary--the consumer--might also gain more timely service and, perhaps, some resultant economies.

In June 1967, TC 46 responded to this interest by establishing a working group to develop a British numbering proposal into a draft international standard. This group met in 1968 and completed a first draft. This was truly an international effort, bringing together representatives from the United States, the United King- dom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, and Denmark, along with a UNESCO observer. Progressing with uncharacteristic speed, the standard was approved by the member bodies of TC 46 at the October 1969 plenary meeting of TC 46, officially approved by the ISO membership in 1971, and pub- lished in 1972.

At the same time that this work was being advanced at the international level, a standards committee was organized in the United States and charged to develop a standard book numbering system for this country. An American National Stand- ard Z39.21 on book numbering, which is in conformity with the international standard, was approved in 1973.

The ISBN has been in use for almost twenty years. Since the introduction of the ISBN, sixty-two countries have signed on to use the ISBN system. In the United States, it is estimated that at least 95 percent of all publications can be identified by an ISBN. In the United Kingdom it has been reported that no book can be pub l i shed . . , without an ISBN being assigned to it.

What exactly does the standard do? The standard prescribes a unique identifier for publications handled by the book trade. The numeric code is made up of ten digits which are divided into four elements:

1. Group identifier which identifies the national, geographic, or other similar grouping of publishers/producers.

2. Company/publisher prefix, a unique number assigned to a particular company. This prefix can vary from two to seven digits depending on the number of products issued each year.

3. Title identifier, which indicates a particular title or unit. This number is assigned by the individual company.

4. Check digit which enables a computer to verify that the assigned number is accurate to prevent errors in transcription.

The ISBN system is administered by national agencies which are responsible for serving as the focal point for ISBN assignment within a given geographic area. The R. R. Bowker Company serves as the ISBN agency in the United States and acts as the maintenance agency for ANSI Z39.21.

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International Standard Serial Number

The International Standard Serial Number is a unique identifier for serial pub- lications, that is, magazines, newspapers, annuals, journals, proceedings, etc. In general, the ISSN is assigned to any publication that is expected to continue indefinitely. This standard was developed because of the constant changes to which serials are subject (such as changes in title, frequency of publication, and format) combined with the tremendous proliferation of serial publications in the 1970s. Like the ISBN, this is an international system, which is dependent on national offices to monitor the assignment of the numbers within a national group. In the United States, the National Serials Data Program at the Library of Congress serves as the main registration authority.

The International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit numeric identifier that uniquely identifies a serial title regardless of language of publication or coun- try of origin. The ISSN has no inherent "intelligence," and the number communi- cates no information other than being the unique identifier for that particular publication.

The ISSN has been implemented for fifteen years. Over 400,000 ISSNs have been assigned to publications issued from 190 different countries.

International Standards Now in Development

Working groups within Technical Committee 46 and other TCs of ISO are today developing new standards for the publishing industry and revising those interna- tional standards that need to reflect new technology and methods. Table 2 lists the many ISO standards now in development. A number of these proposed standards are of such importance they deserve special mention.

TABLE 2 International Standards of Interest to Publishers Now in Development or Being Revised

Electronic manuscript preparation and markup: a processing as an international standard of the U.S. standard

Statistics on the production and distribution of books, newspapers, periodicals, and electronic man- uscripts: a revision of ISO 9707

International standard technical report number: based on the U.S. technical report number, the proposed international scheme would also include a country identifier

Presentation of manuscripts: describes how manuscripts should be organized and prepared for publication

Titles leaves of books: a revision of ISO 1086

Establishment of indexes: a revision of ISO 999

Presentation of catalogues on technical data sheets and standard-like publications: describes how to organize and present data for a catalog format

Permanence of paper for printed library materials, coated and uncoated papers: based on the N1SO- developed U.S. standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1984), these standards will desribe the criteria for per- manent papers that will last several hundred years.

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TC 46 Subcommittee 4 is processing as an international standard the U.S. standard for electronic manuscript preparation and markup developed by the American Association of Publishers and approved by NISO and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI/NISO Z39.59). This standard is an applica- tion of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (ISO 8879) and is the first industrywide application of SGML.

Now being revised is the international standard "Statistics on the Production and Distribution of Books, Newspapers, Periodicals, and Electronic Publications" This international standard is the basis for the data collection efforts of UNESCO and is, as a result, critical to the collection and analysis of the world's intellectual output. The last draft of this standard will be reviewed in 1989. The U.S.-de- veloped and approved American National Standard for Permanence of Paper (Z39.48) is being used as the basis for the proposed international standards for permanent uncoated and coated papers. Both standards will describe the charac- teristics for coated and uncoated papers which will contribute to the paper's permanence and durability.

Future Trends in International Standards Development

The United States has traditionally been one of the leaders in advancing the development and implementation of international standards and has enjoyed a very powerful role in shaping international standards, within both the TC 46 community and the other technical committees sponsored by ISO. That situation may change owing to recent developments in Europe.

Since 1986 the Commission of the European Communities has been working aggressively to achieve its goal of creating a European "internal market" by 1992. One tool the EC is using to improve marketing conditions within the EC member countries is the development and implementation of standards that will be recog- nized by all EC member countries. The EC's primary goal is to work within traditional industrial areas; however, telecommunications and automation stand- ards will undoubtedly be included. It may be more difficult in the future for the opinion of U.S. experts to mold the direction of standards development. At this time, the best U.S. experts say that it is too early to tell how the U.S. producer will fare. It seems obvious, however, that one tool at our disposal is to continue to work within the international standards arena to harmonize standards.

Notes

To learn more about international standards development and the role of the United States in international standards development, contact the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for TC 46: NISO, P.O. Box 1056, Bethesda, MD 20817, Telephone: 301-975-2814.

To purchase an ISO standard, contact the American National Standards Institute, 1430 Broadway, New York, NY 10018.