3rd annual event will focus on the changing landscape for e-book standards

New York, NY (April 27, 2009) -- The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced today that their 3rd annual joint standards forum entitled "The Changing Standards Landscape" will be held July 10, 2009 from 12:30 PM to 4:00 PM, directly prior to the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. This year's free, half-day forum will focus on e-book standards and feature thought leadership on the critical areas of identification, formatting, DRM and the specific use needs of libraries. RSVPs should be sent to nisohq@niso.org.

NISO's Managing Director, Todd Carpenter, and BISG's Executive Director, Michael Healy, will guide the standards forum through three main themes:

Identify and Describe

• The New ISTC Agency: An emerging standard
  
• ISBN and E-Books: The use of ISBN for electronic texts
  

Format, Discover and Retrieve

• Toward a Common E-book Format Standard: IDPF's EPUB
  
• Discovering Online Book Content: BISG's BookDROP
  

Purchase and Use

• DRM Use in E-Books
  
• Use of E-books in the Library Context
  

"The market for electronic books has expanded rapidly in the past year," said Todd Carpenter, NISO's Manager Director, "and many of the existing standards, work flows and business models for print books need to be reevaluated in an e-book environment. NISO is pleased to be joining with BISG for the 3rd year in a row to provide critical guidance to libraries on the particular concerns surrounding e-book creation, distribution and use."

"The Changing Standards Landscape for E-Books" forum is sponsored by Swets. For more information, visit http://www.bisg.org/conferences/ala_2009.html.

Media Contact:
Angela Bole
Deputy Executive Director
Book Industry Study Group
646-336-7141
angela@bisg.org
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About the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG)
The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) is the U.S. publishing industry's leading trade association for policy, standards and research. The mission of BISG is to create a more informed, empowered and efficient book industry. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. Learn more about BISG at www.bisg.org.

About the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) fosters the development and maintenance of standards that facilitate the creation, persistent management, and effective interchange of information so that it can be trusted for use in research and learning. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages libraries, publishers, information aggregators and other organizations that support learning, research and scholarship through the creation, organization, management and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire life cycle of an information standard. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Learn more about NISO at www.niso.org.
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