PALNI joins NISO as a voting member

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) recently became a voting member of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). Through this membership, PALNI will play an integral role in advancing standards-based library infrastructure and innovation through collaboration with cultural, scientific, scholarly and professional communities. 

“PALNI is joining key organizations where the objectives of the organization support our progress of deep collaboration between PALNI-supported schools and additional partners,” says Kirsten Leonard, PALNI Executive Director. “As PALNI libraries innovate to work together to leverage new technology, services, and expertise to meet the needs of students and faculty from smaller colleges and universities, standards addressed by NISO are critical to our collaborative infrastructure. PALNI libraries, as a collaborative, have the resources to be a voice at the table.”

NISO Voting Membership is open to any organization globally that supports the organization’s  goals—to initiate, develop, maintain, and publish technical standards for information services, libraries, publishers, and others involved in the information business. NISO is the only organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for this purpose.

As a voting member, PALNI obtains the following benefits:

• A role in influencing the direction of technological advances in information management through driving standards and best practices.

• Unlimited free or discounted access to NISO events, including training, webinars and the annual NISO Plus conference.

• A voice in shaping NISO’s future direction by nominating and voting for members of the NISO board and other leadership positions, as well as serving on strategic committees.

• Promoting PALNI and NISO as leaders in the information field.

As part of the consortial arrangement, PALNI’s 24 supported libraries have the opportunity to join NISO’s Library Standards Alliance (LSA). Libraries of all types—including the small- to medium-sized private academic libraries that comprise PALNI—play a vital role in contributing to and implementing information standards, making them valued contributors to NISO. LSA membership allows the libraries to both contribute to the development of information standards work and to stay up to date with the many national and international standards activities that NISO is involved in.

LSA benefits include:

• Supporting community access to NISO standards.

• Unlimited participation opportunities in NISO standards committees and working groups.

• Unlimited free or discounted access to NISO events.

“By becoming a voting member of NISO, PALNI will add to the voice of smaller academic and theological libraries and contribute to the development and establishment of standards critical to making the information and library environment more interoperable and equitable,” says Noah Brubaker, PALNI Associate Director. 

“We are delighted to welcome PALNI to the NISO community,” says Todd A. Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. “It’s important that our membership reflects the wide range of library institutions, and PALNI’s unique position as a consortium that includes smaller, private academic and theological institutions helps us to serve those interests. We’re excited to collaborate with them to develop and maintain information standards and best practices.”

For more information about this announcement, email staff@palni.org or nisohq@niso.org. 

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About the National Information Standards Organization

Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO’s mission is to build knowledge, foster discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional communities. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages with 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 lifecycle of information standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO website (https://niso.org) or contact us at nisohq@niso.org.

About the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana

The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a non-profit organization that supports collaboration for library and information services for 24 colleges, universities and seminaries throughout the state. From its inception in 1992, the PALNI collaboration has been a key avenue for its supported institutions to contain costs while providing more effective library services. More recently, PALNI has adopted a model of deep collaboration that pools resources and people as a tool to expand services while keeping costs down. PALNI’s board of directors, composed of all 24 library deans and directors from the supported organizations, convened a Future Framing Task Force in 2019 to address ongoing demographic challenges in higher education. The board has escalated this work in the wake of COVID-19, as the consortium seeks to manage the increased need for online support while reducing costs. Simultaneously, PALNI is expanding collaboration within its institutions and with external library partners to address challenges and build cost-effective services. Visit the PALNI website for more information.

PALNI Supported Institutions

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary | Anderson University | Bethel University | Butler University | Concordia Theological Seminary | Christian Theological Seminary | DePauw University | Earlham College | Franklin College | Goshen College | Grace College | Hanover College | Huntington University | Manchester University | Marian University | Oakland City University | University of Saint Francis | Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College | Saint Mary’s College | Saint Meinrad’s Seminary and School of Theology | Taylor University | Trine University | University of Indianapolis | Wabash College