Interlibrary Loan Standards Undergoing Revision at the ISO Level

My employer (LYRASIS) is a member of NISO (the accredited standards organization for information and documentation in the U.S.), and as the primary contact I see and consider ballots for standards issues that impact LYRASIS member libraries. The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Application Protocol Specification (a.k.a. ISO 10160/10161) is up for its periodic review, and there is a bit of interesting movement on this standard. ISO 10160/10161 became a standard in 1993 so it predates the modern era of the web. The group shepherding the standard realized that progress had overtaken the specification and they started work on a reformulation of inter-machine ILL standards. This ballot and its supplemental documentation gives a view of the plans.

The text accompanying the ballot says:

The future of this standard has been discussed by TC46/SC4 at both their 2011 and 2012 meetings. Following these discussions, a resolution was passed to "invite Danish Standards to prepare a NWIP [new work item proposal] in cooperation with other interested parties for a new ILL standard." This proposal was forthcoming, based on discussions with representatives from USA, Canada, UK, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia, and was presented in a ballot that ends on February 3, 2013. The proposal is expected to be approved and the new standard is intended to replace this current set of standards.

However, since the development of the proposed new standard and its subsequent implementations are expected to take several years, the committee has recommended that this existing ILL standard remain active in the interim. For this reason, it is recommended that you vote to CONFIRM this standard.

The ballot for the new work item indeed closed on February 3rd and was approved. There is now a document from the Finish Standards Association (embedded below) that goes into more detail about the plans for a new working group.

So the work begins...