JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite

NISO has published the JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite standard.

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the publication of a new American National Standard, JATS: Journal Article Tag Suite, ANSI/NISO Z39.96-2012. JATS provides a common XML format in which publishers and archives can exchange journal content by preserving the intellectual content of journals independent of the form in which that content was originally delivered. In addition to the element and attribute descriptions, three journal article tag sets (the Archiving and Interchange Tag Set, the Journal Publishing Tag Set, and the Article Authoring Tag Set) are part of the standard. While designed to describe the textual and graphical content of journal articles, it can also be used for some other materials, such as letters, editorials, and book and product reviews....

The JATS standard is available as both an online XML document and a freely downloadable PDF from the NISO website (www.niso.org/workrooms/journalmarkup). Supporting documentation and schemas in DTD, RELAX NG, and W3C Schema formats are available at: jats.nlm.nih.gov/.

Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations

If your institution is involved in digitization the Minimum Digitization Capture Recommendations provides some guidelines for long term preservation. It is up for review, so please comment.

In 2011, the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Preservation and Reformatting Section charged a task force to develop guidelines for libraries digitizing content with the objective of producing digital products that will endure. The intent of this document was to build off past works. The authors reviewed previous research, practices at over 50 organizations, and samples of digitized works to determine a recommendation of minimum specifications for sustainable digitized content. The recommendations are not intended to dictate specific technical specifications at any given institution, but rather a floor that should not be dropped below. This draft was the result of the task force’s work. It is now up for general comment before it is published in its final version.

Music Discovery Requirements

If you deal with scores or recorded music, this may be of interest.

The Music Discovery Requirements document is now available on the Music Library Association's web site. http://committees.musiclibraryassoc.org/ETSC/MDR

The Music Discovery Requirements document addresses the unique needs posed by music materials which must be considered for successful discovery. This document discusses the issues and when possible gives concrete recommendations for discovery interfaces. Three appendixes compile technical details of the specific indexing recommendations in spreadsheets. The document was created under the auspices of Music Library Association's Emerging Technologies and Services Committee and officially approved by the Music Library Association's Board of Directors.

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

The standard for describing describing archives, personal papers, and manuscript collections (DACS) are being revised.

The Technical Subcommittee on Describing Archives: A Content Standard (TS-DACS) has completed a draft revision of the standard. This revision is available at http://www2.archivists.org/groups/technical-subcommittee-on-describing-archives-a-content-standard-dacs/describing-archives-a-c. We hope that you will take the time to review the draft revision and submit comments to the committee.