A new, vastly updated version of the international records management standard, ISO15489, is due to be released at a big gathering of world standards makers in Wellington, in the first week of May.  The gathering will be the annual meeting of the International Standards Organisation’s Technical Committee for information and documentation, TC46.

It will be the first time that the TC46 sub-committees have met in New Zealand: Sub-committee 4 (SC4) on technical interoperability, SC8 concerned with quality statistics and performance evaluation, SC9 on identification and description and SC10 establishing requirements for document storage and conditions for preservation.

The ISO15489 sub-committee, SC11, wrote the original standard that was published in 2001.  The revised standard will be released before invited top-management delegations from New Zealand government agencies and ISO standards makers. 

Leader of the SC11 working group, Netherlands archives doyen, Mr Hans Hofman, will present the many changes, extensively on appraisal and digitisation methodologies, that he and his committee have debated during the past five years.

The launch highlights the week-long gathering (May 9 to 13) of more than 100 world experts on information and documentation standards setting working with TC46 sub-committees.  They focus on the continuing development of many of the dozens of standards for which they are responsible[i]. The event is backed by the National Library of New Zealand and Archives New Zealand.

National Library Director of Content Services, Ms Alison Elliott, explained that TC46 interests cover standards relevant to interoperability among libraries, information centres, indexing and abstracting services, archives and publishers; statistics, performance indicators and methods of assessing impact of libraries including national libraries. 

She said: “It also covers records and archives management; museums and archives; information identifiers, description and associated metadata and models for use in information organisations and the content industries; and requirements for document storage and conditions for preservation.

 “Information identifiers are of considerable importance in the book publishing chain and to rights management organisations.   A number of people involved in standards development in New Zealand and Australia will be attending the meeting, along with TC46 participants from many other countries.”    

The week’s event will begin and end with plenary sessions reviewing overall developments and deciding next steps. During the week, many large and small meetings of working groups will develop specific projects, review and improve draft texts.  The meetings will not be public events, but interested parties have been granted admission as observers.

The committees will be meeting in the National Library of N.Z, Archives N.Z and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).   

For more information contact:  Ms Léonore Kaveney-Decout, Archives Advisor, System Strategy and Standards, Archives New Zealand. tel: (04) 495 6213, email: Leonore.Kaveney-Decout@dia.govt.nz 

[i]  TC46 subcommittee publications: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.ht...