CHAPTER X Standards for IOD Activities
X.1 INTRODUCTION A standard is a minimum degree of excellence for a product or a uniform pattern of practice/process voluntarily accepted and maintained by the concerned people or recommended by a competent body (standardizing body) for adoption by the concerned people. A standard thus ensures either a minimum quality of a man-made or machine-made material or unifor- mity in any procedure or practice. The importance of standardization was felt in the field of library and information services quite early. The world- wide use of standard catalogue cards of 12.7 cm × 7.6 cm size for a long time bears testimony to this fact.
X.2 STANDARDIZING AGENCY Every country is expected to have an organization to formulate national standards suited to its own conditions. British Standards Institution (also known as BSI Group) is the world’s first national standardizing body, which was set up in 1901 [1]. Many countries have since set up such orga- nizations. ISO website lists 163 national member organizations [2]. The standardizing body of the United States is known as American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which was set up in 1918. Interestingly, in the United States there is also a specialized agency that formulates stan- dards relating to information, viz., the National Information Standards Organizations (NISO). NISO, which is a non-profit association accredited by ANSI, identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply to both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, repurposing, storage, metadata, and preservation [3]. The Indian Standards Institution as also its Documentation Sectional Committee was set up in 1947. The first Documentation Sectional Committee was headed by Dr. S.R. Ranganathan. At present, this section is known as Documentation and
Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination © 2017 Amitabha Chatterjee. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102025-8.00024-7 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 483 484 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination
Information Sectional Committee (MSD-5). Indian Standards Institution has since been renamed Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Besides the national organizations, there are also several regional standardizing bod- ies, such as the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) in Europe, the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT), the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), the Arabic Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO) [1]. Furthermore, there is also an international standardiz- ing body known as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (formerly International Standardization Association), which was set up in 1947. Its three technical committees, ISO/TC 37 (on terminology), ISO/ TC 46 (on documentation), and ISO/TC 97 (on computer and infor- mation processing), formulate standards relating to documentation and information work.
X.3 NEED FOR STANDARDS Standards are required in the field of information organization and dissemination (IOD) because of the following reasons [4]: ● To maintain a minimum standard or quality of information service; ● To bring uniformity in sizes and quality of materials used in organiza- tion of information; ● To bring uniformity in procedures and practices followed in the field of IOD; ● To facilitate application of computer in transfer/exchange of computer processed information; and ● To expand the scope of services through national and international cooperation.
X.4 AREAS OF STANDARDIZATION There seems to be no scope for standardizing the actual information organization work, except those done mechanically, like auto-indexing, auto-abstracting, or auto-translation, since the manual organization work involves intellectual effort. But some guidelines may be framed for Standards for IOD Activities 485 manual/intellectual organization, including information consolidation work, and standards may be formulated for materials used in organization work such as stationary and accessories. The information/documents are usually disseminated in the form of documentation lists, copies made by reprographic processes, or information consolidation products. Uniform practices may be developed for arranging the various items in an entry and arranging the entries themselves in documentation lists, and informa- tion consolidation products. Thus, the format, the layout, and the arrange- ment of documentation lists, information consolidation products, etc. may be standardized. Similarly, the size and the quality of reprographic equipment and their accessories and the prints to be obtained may be standardized. Besides, standardization is also required in related fields like terminology, transliteration, abbreviation, proof reading, etc. However, though computers and related accessories are now widely used in IOD activities, the standards relating to these are not handled by the section of the standardizing body that formulates standards relating to documenta- tion and information activities.
X.5 STANDARDS FOR IOD National and international standards have already been formulated in various areas relating to IOD. The relevant standards are being briefly introduced below.
X.5.1 Information Retrieval Today information retrieval (IR) is carried out manually as well as by using computer. Standards have been formulated for both.
X.5.1.1 Indexing BSI formulated the standard BS 1749 Alphabetical Arrangement in 1951, which was thoroughly revised and the new version Specification for Alphabetical Arrangement and the Filing Order of Numerals and Symbols was published in 1969. BSI also published BS 3700 Recommendations for Preparing Indexes to Books, Periodicals and other Publications in 1964, which was revised twice in 1976 and 1988. In 1959 American Standards Association (predecessor of ANSI) formulated the standard Z39.4 Basic Criteria for Indexes which was revised in 1968 and 1984. In 1993 ANSI/ NISO drafted a revised version entitled Proposed American National Standard 486 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination
Guidelines for indexes and Related Information Retrieval Devices (ANSI/ NISO Z39.4-199X) for replacing the existing standard, but it could not finally be approved. ISO formulated ISO 999 Guidelines for the Content, Organization and Presentation of Indexes in 1975, which was revised in 1996. Much of the provisions of BS 3700 were incorporated in this standard. The revised standard provides guidelines for the content, arrangement, and presentation of indexes to books, periodicals, reports, patent docu- ments, maps, and other written documents and also non-print materi- als, such as electronic documents, films, sound and video recordings, and even three-dimensional objects. It covers the choice and form of headings and subheadings used in index entries once the subjects to be indexed have been determined [5]. BSI formulated a complementary standard BS 6529 Recommendations for Examining Documents, Determining their Subjects and Selecting Indexing Terms in 1984, following which ISO also formu- lated its standard ISO 5693 Methods for Examining Documents, Determining their Subjects, and Selecting Index Terms, in 1985, which covers the selec- tion of subjects primarily for databases and other indexes. These standards have been adopted by many countries. Besides, BSI also formulated BS 1749 British Standard Alphabetical Arrangements in 1951, which was revised in 1969 as Alphabetical Arrangement and the Filing Order of Numerals and Symbols and again in 1985 as Recommendations for Alphabetical Arrangement and the Filing Order of Numbers and Symbols. In India, no standard has yet been formulated covering the field of indexing comprehensively. However, there are two Indian standards that are related to index and indexing: IS: 382: 2003 Practice for Alphabetical Arrangement (First Revision, Reaffirmed December 2012) (Note: This standard was first published in 1952); IS: 1275: 1976 Rules for Making Alphabetical Indexes (Reaffirmed February 2011) (Note: This standard was first published in 1958, revised in 1976, and reaffirmed in 2011).
X.5.1.2 Vocabulary Control Importance of controlled vocabulary in IR is well known. The most used controlled vocabulary is thesaurus, which may be monolingual or mul- tilingual. The first international standard for thesauri construction was ISO 2788 Guidelines for the Establishment and Development of Monolingual Thesauri, originally published in 1974 and updated in 1986. In 1985, a complementary standard ISO 5964 Guidelines for the Establishment and Development of Multilingual Thesauri was brought out. Over the years, these two standards have been adopted as national standards in several countries, Standards for IOD Activities 487 such as Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, they were numbered as BS 5723 and BS 6723, respectively. The British standards have since been revised to meet the networking needs of the new millennium [6]. The revised British comprehensive standard BS 8723 Structured Vocabularies for Information Retrieval has been brought out in following five parts during 2005–08: Part 1: Definitions, symbols, and abbreviations Part 2: Thesauri Part 3: Vocabularies other than thesauri Part 4: Interoperability between vocabularies Part 5: Exchange formats and protocols for interoperability ISO has since revised ISO 5964 as ISO 25964 Thesauri and Interoperability with Other Vocabularies (in two parts)—Part 1: Thesauri for Information Retrieval (published in August 2011) and Part 2: Interoperability with Other Vocabularies (published in March 2013). This standard intends to support IR and specifically to guide the choice of terms used in indexing, tagging, and search queries. ISO 25964 has been adopted by the national standardizing bodies in a number of countries. For example, The British Standards Institution (BSI) has adopted it and brought it out as BS ISO 25964-1. Similar consideration is underway for Part 2. The American stan- dard ANSI/NISO Z39.19: 2005 (R2010)—Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies covers some of the same ground as ISO 25964-1. It deals with monolingual lists, synonym rings, and taxonomies as well as thesauri but does not provide a data model nor addresses multilingual vocabularies or other aspects of interoperability, such as mapping between knowledge organization systems [6]. BIS adopted ISO 2788 in 1999 and brought it out as IS 14720: 1999/ISO 2788: 1986 Guidelines for the Establishment and Development of Monolingual Thesauri.
X.5.1.3 Computerized IR Keeping pace with the digital age requirements, ISO brought out a series of standards relating to computerized information processing, retrieval, and exchange. Many of these standards have been adopted in several countries, such as the United Kingdom, China, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India. Some of these standards adopted in India (with corresponding ISO numbers) are mentioned below: ● IS 7900:2007/ISO 8601:2004 Data Elements and Interchange Formats—Information Interchange—Representation of Dates and Times (Third Revision, Reaffirmed Dec 2012) Note: This standard, 488 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination
originally published in 1976, was based on ISO 2014:1976. In the first revision of this standard in 1999, ISO 8601: 1988 was adopted. In the second revision in 2001, ISO 8601: 2000 was adopted. ● IS 14873:2012/ISO 2709:2008 Format for Information Exchange (First Revision) Note: This standard was first published in 2000 which was based on ISO 2709: 1996. ● IS 15389:2003/ISO 17933:2000 GEDI—Generic Electronic Document Interchange (Reaffirmed December 2012). ● IS 15390:2003/ISO 23950:1998 Information Retrieval (Z39.50)— Application, Service Definition and Protocol Specification (Reaffirmed December 2012). ● IS 15991:2012/ISO 8459:2009 Bibliographic Data Element Directory for Use in Data Exchange and Enquiry. ● IS 15992:2012/ISO 15836:2009 The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. ● IS 15993:2012/ISO 20775:2009 Schema for Holdings Information. ● IS 15995:2012/ISO 25577:2008 MarcXchange. BIS has also issued IS 11370:2008 Guide for Data Elements and Record Format for Computer based Bibliographical Databases for Bibliographic Description of Different Kinds of Documents (First Revision, Reaffirmed March 2014) and a standard relevant for information exchange, viz., IS 13194: 1991 Indian Script Code for Information Interchange—ISCII.
X.5.2 Information Consolidation Every library has to undertake some kind of information consolidation work. This work is also being done by private organizations. Standards are required on various aspects of this work. Condensation or abstracting is the most popular mode of information consolidation. ISO formulated ISO 214 Abstracts for Publications and Documentation in 1976 (last reviewed in 2010), which provides guidelines for preparing abstracts by authors and also for abstractors for secondary publications. American standard ANSI/ NISO Z.14-1997 (Revised 2009) Guidelines for Abstracts also provides sim- ilar guidance. The Indian standards formulated for abstract and abstracting are IS 795 (Second revision): 2013 Guide for Preparation of Abstracts (Note: This standard was first published in 1966 under the title “Canons for mak- ing abstracts.” It was first revised in 1976 and published under the present title. The standard was reaffirmed in 2003 and again revised in 2013); IS: 7150: 1974 Library catalogue and abstract card (Reaffirmed February 2011); and IS 10455: 1983/ISO 5122: 1979 Guidelines for Presentation of Abstract Sheets in Serial Publications (Reaffirmed December 2012). Standards for IOD Activities 489
X.5.2.1 Consolidation Products At the international level, ISO formulated standard ISO 5966: 1982 Presentation of Scientific and technical reports, which provides guidance on preparation and presentation of scientific and technical reports. Earlier, BSI brought out BS 4811 Presentation of Research and Development Reports in 1972, which also provides similar guidance. American stan- dard, ANSI/NISO Z39.18-2005 (Revised 2010) Scientific and Technical Reports—Preparation, Presentation, and Preservation outlines the elements, organization, and design of scientific and technical reports. BIS has brought out guidelines for technical report in three parts: IS 8010: 1976 (Part 1) Guidelines for Preparation of Technical Reports: Part 1 Research and Development Reports (Reaffirmed 2003, December 2012); IS 8010:1982 (Part 2) Guidelines for Preparation of Technical Reports: Part 2 Feasibility Reports (Reaffirmed December 2012); IS 8010:1987 (Part 3) Guidelines for Preparation of Technical Reports: Part 3 Industrial Potential Survey Reports (Reaffirmed December 2012). Besides, it has also formulated two more related standards: IS 9400:1980 Guidelines for Preparation of Bibliographic Description Sheets for Technical Reports (Reaffirmed 2003, December 2012); IS 9637:1980 Guidelines for Presentation of Information in Technical Manuals (Reaffirmed 2003, 2012). Another information consolidation prod- uct, trade catalogue, has attracted the attention of standardizing bod- ies of some countries. BSI brought out BS 1311 Manufacturers’ Trade and Technical Literature in 1955, which covers trade catalogues, while American Standards Association (predecessor of American National Standards Institute) brought out ASA Z39.6 American Standard for Trade Catalogs in 1966. BIS brought out a similar standard IS 11956 Guidelines for Preparation of Trade Catalogue in 1987 (Reaffirmed 2003). For yet another information consolidation product, directory of periodicals, BIS has formulated the standard IS 15282: 2003 Entries in a Directory of Periodicals, which has been reaffirmed in December 2012. There seems to be no parallel standard on this product formulated by ISO, ANSI, or BSI. There seems to be no stan- dard for other varieties of information consolidation product. X.5.3 Documentation List A documentation list is a list of documents, specially micro documents. It can be a bare list or a list augmented with abstracts of documents. Since there can be different varieties of documentation lists, there cannot be a comprehensive standard covering all such lists. ISO brought out the standard ISO 18: 1981 Documentation—Contents List of Periodicals, which 490 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination provides rules for the presentation and the position of contents list of peri- odicals. BIS has formulated two standards that specifically relate to com- pilation of documentation lists: IS 11957: 1987 Guidelines for Contents List of Periodicals (Reaffirmed 2003); and IS 15283: 2003 Layout of an Entry in a Union Catalogue of Periodical Publication (Reaffirmed December 2012). Besides, several other standards can be helpful in the compilation of docu- mentation lists, such as those related to alphabetical arrangement. BSI for- mulated BS 1749: 1951 (revised 1985, confirmed 2003) British Standard Recommendations for Alphabetical Arrangement and the Filing Order of Numbers and Symbols, while NISO brought out a technical report NISO TR03- 1999: Guidelines for Alphabetical Arrangement of Letters and Sorting of Numerals and Other Symbols. BIS has brought out IS: 382:2003 Practice for Alphabetical Arrangement, and IS: 1275 (1976): Rules for Making Alphabetical Indexes.
X.5.4 Bibliographical References An important area in which the need for standardization has been felt for a long time is bibliographic references as insufficient information in refer- ences often makes it difficult to identify and find out the referred docu- ments, if required. The items of information to be included and their sequence in a bibliographic reference may not be the same in every case. The items required in a reference given by an author at the end of his writing and the items required in a citation in any indexing/abstracting journal may be different though some essential items will be common. Any standard formulated in this field must take care of both the situa- tions. The Indian standard IS: 2381 Recommendations for Bibliographic References: Essential and Supplementary Elements (first published in 1963 and first revised in 1978) had two sets of recommendations for the two types of citations mentioned above. In 2009 it has been further revised on the basis of ISO standard 690. The latest revised version is in two parts— Bibliographic References: Part 1 Content, Form and Structure [IS 2381 (Part 1): 2009/ISO 690-1: 1987] and Bibliographic References: Part 2 Electronic Documents or Parts thereof [IS 2381(Part 2): 2009/ISO 690-2: 1997]. Thus, it now also includes references to be given in case of electronic publications. In a latest development, a revised version of Part 1 of this standard, retitled as Guidelines for Bibliographic References and Citations to Information Resources, has since been circulated for eliciting opinion. The first standard in this field was, however, formulated by the BSI in 1950 (BS 1629: Bibliographic References), which was amended several times and was finally replaced by BS/ISO 690: 2010. The original British Standard did not have separate Standards for IOD Activities 491 provisions for two types of citations. Incidentally, ISO first brought out its recommendation ISO/R77 Bibliographic References: Essential Elements in 1958, which was revised in 1968 as ISO/R690 Bibliographic References: Essential and Supplementary Elements [7].
X.5.5 Reprography ISO has formulated a large number of standards in this field since 1980s, and many of these standards have been adopted in several countries. However, the first Indian standard in the field of reprography IS 3130: 1965 Code of Practice for Storage and Use of Microfilms of Permanent Value was formulated long before ISO standards were brought out. This standard was first revised in 1972 to include microfiche and also to cover some of the important aspects, namely, care in handling to check physical damage and packing methods for transmitting the microcopies, and accordingly the title of the standard was changed to Code of Practice for Handling and Storage of Microtransparencies (microfilm and microfiche) (silver halide). The sec- ond revision of this standard was brought out in 1985, and the same was reaffirmed in December 2012. This revision was done in the light of ISO 5466 Practice for the Storage of Processed Safety Photographic Films [8]. Other standards brought out by BIS in this field are: ● IS 3083: 1966 Code of Practice for the Processing of Microfilms (silver halide) (Note: This was revised in 1985 as Code of Practice for the Processing of Microtransparencies (microfilms and microfiche) (silver halide) (First Revision) (Reaffirmed February 2011)). ● IS 6299: 1971 Guide for Handling, Testing, and Storage of Monochrome Photographic Prints (Reaffirmed December 2012). ● IS 9450:1980 Guidelines for Placement of Images in Roll Microfilm (Reaffirmed February 2011). ● IS 10456: 2003 Density of Silver-Gelatin Type Microforms— Specification (First Revision), (Reaffirmed December 2012) (Note: This standard was originally published in 1983. It is not technically equivalent to corresponding international standard ISO 6200: 1999) [9].
X.5.6 Terminology With the growth of any subject field, new terms automatically come in use. This has happened in case of IOD too. As the same term may have different meanings in different contexts and different subject fields, it is necessary to standardize the terms used in a subject by clearly defining 492 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination them. This has already been done in various areas relating to IOD, such as classification, reprography. BSI formulated BS: 5405 Glossary of Documentation Terms in 1976. Between 1983 and 1998 ISO has brought out ISO 5127 Information and Documentation—Vocabulary in 12 parts. BIS adopted Parts 1–6 of this standard and issued them in parts during 1992– 94 under the same title. Subsequently, in 2001, ISO replaced the standards earlier issued in parts with a comprehensive standard bearing the same title. The standard was issued to “facilitate International communication in the field of information and documentation” [10]. BIS again adopted this standard and issued it as IS 13550: 2003 (First Revision, Reaffirmed December 2012). Standards have also been formulated on vocabular- ies of different fields of IOD. For example, in the field of reprogra- phy, ISO first formulated ISO: 260 Terms Relating to Microcopies and their Bases in 1962. Subsequently, it brought out a comprehensive standard ISO 6196 Micrographics—Vocabulary in 10 parts during 2001–03. This standard has been adopted in many countries like Poland, China, Japan, Singapore, India, etc. The Indian standard is numbered as IS 15027. BIS has also produced IS: 2550: 1963 (Reaffirmed December 2012) Glossary of Classification Terms and IS: 796: 1966 (First Revision February 2011) Glossary of Cataloguing Terms, which are somewhat related to IOD.
X.6 STANDARDS IN RELATED FIELDS Many standards have been formulated both at international level and national level, which are not related to main activities of IOD but cer- tainly have some bearing with such activities, such as ISBN, ISSN, ISBD, ISMN. A few standards that are often needed to be consulted in IOD work are only introduced below.
X.6.1 Translation Service The most well-known standard relating to translation service is EN 15038: 2006 European Quality Standard for Translation Services, which was devel- oped by European Committee for Standardization, especially for transla- tion service providers. The most outstanding features of this standard are firstly, it defines the translation process where quality is guaranteed not by the translation which is just one phase in the process but by the fact of the translation being reviewed by a person other than the translator and secondly, it specifies the professional competences of each of the partici- pants in the translation process, mainly translators, reviewers, revisers, and Standards for IOD Activities 493 proofreaders [11–13]. Thus, it ensures the consistent quality of service. It requires regular audits by the certification body, and if any discrep- ancy is found, the certification is revoked. ISO developed its own trans- lation service management standard ISO 17100:2015 mainly based on the European standard with some key differences. It gives more empha- sis on the use of appropriate style and terminology and is more customer oriented [13]. Earlier, ISO had also formulated ISO 2384 Guidelines for Presentation of Translations, which has since been adopted as Indian standard (IS 10454: 1983, Reaffirmed 2012).
X.6.2 Transliteration Transliteration means representation of words and phrases of one lan- guage by the alphabets of another keeping their pronunciation intact. Transliteration is required in documentation when the documents being processed and listed are in different languages. The problem of translitera- tion is quite serious in India where documents are produced in 15 lan- guages and several dialects. Unless a standard pattern of transliteration is followed, there is always a chance of misplacement and hiding of entries. ISO was the first organization to bring out a standard in this field in 1955, viz., ISO/R-9 International System for the Transliteration of Cyrillic Characters, which was revised in 1968. It has so far brought out 16 standards for transliteration of different types of characters, including ISO 15919: 2001 Transliteration of Devanagari and Related Indian Scripts into Latin Characters. A British standard on the subject, BS 2978, was formulated in 1958. BIS has formulated IS 15341 Transliteration of the Indian Scripts to the Roman Script in 2003.
X.6.3 Abbreviations Two types of standards for abbreviations have been formulated— abbreviations of periodical titles and codes for countries. ISO brought out ISO 4: 1997 Rules for the Abbreviation of Title Words and Titles of Publications. ANSI formulated Z39.5: 1963 American national standard for the abbrevia- tion of titles of periodicals, which was revised in 1969. The Indian standard on abbreviation of periodical titles was first published as IS 18: 1949 Abbreviations for Titles of Periodicals. It was first revised after more than 20 years and retitled as Guide to Abbreviations of Words in Titles of Periodicals Using Roman Alphabet [IS 18 (First Revision): 1970]. It was fur- ther revised and its scope widened in 1988 [IS 18 (Second Revision): 1988 Rules for the Abbreviations of Title Words and Titles of Publications]. It 494 Elements of Information Organization and Dissemination was again revised in 1999 in the light of ISO 4: 1997 as IS 18: 1999/ ISO 4: 1997 Rules for the Abbreviations of Title Words and Titles of Publications (Third Revision, Reaffirmed September 2009). For abbre- viations of country names, ISO formulated ISO 3166: 1974 Country Codes. It was revised in 1981, 1988, and 1993, and in 1999 it was fur- ther revised and published in three parts. Except for the numeric codes, ISO 3166 codes were adopted in the United States as FIPS 10-4. However, on September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was withdrawn by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the US Deprtment of Commerce as a federal information processing standard. It was replaced by the Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes (GENC), which is based on ISO 3166 [14]. BIS formulated IS 14836 Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries and their Subdivisions—Part 1: Country Codes in 2000. In 2009 it was revised in the light of ISO 3166-1: 2006 (IS 14836 (Part 1): 2009/ISO 3166-1: 2006 Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries and their Subdivisions: Part 1 Country codes (First Revision)). Again a revised version of this standard has been drafted and circulated for eliciting opinions of experts [15].
X.6.4 Proof Correction BSI brought out BS 5261: 1958 British Standard Recommendations for Proof Correction and Copy Preparation, which has been revised in 2005. A similar standard was issued by NISO (of the United States) viz., Z39.22: 1989 Proof Corrections: American National Standard for Proof Correction and also by BIS viz., IS 1250:1958 Proof correction for Printers and Authors (Reaffirmed 2003).
REFERENCES [1] Standards Organization.
[10] International Standards Organization. ISO 5127: 2001(en).