Keith Webster, dean of University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon University, has been elected as the new Vice Chair of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) for the 2017-2018 term, which will begin on July 1, 2017. In addition to his position as dean at Carnegie Mellon, Webster has a courtesy academic appointment at the University's H. John Heinz III College. He has also been a leader within NISO, having served as a Director and most recently as NISO's Treasurer.
NISO, based in Baltimore, Maryland, 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 is an international organization, and I'm looking forward to bringing my experience at academic institutions inside and outside the United States to my new role on as the organization's Vice Chair," says Webster. "Several of NISO's ongoing projects show promise in streamlining how libraries and vendors worldwide collaborate and communicate, and it's very exciting to be a part of that."