Forthcoming ISO Ballots

NISO Voting members participate in the development, revision, and evaluation of standards. Voting members are able to influence the standards process and mold the future of the industry. The following NISO ballots are open and will close before the next newsletter is distributed.

• Technical Content of ISO/DIS 2108 (Ed 5)

  The purpose of this International Standard is to establish the specifications for the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) as a unique international identification system for each product form or edition of a separately available monographic publication published or produced by a specific publisher that is available to the public.

  It specifies the construction of an ISBN, the rules for its assignment and use, the metadata to be associated with the ISBN allocation, and the administration of the ISBN system. This International Standard is applicable to monographic publications (books) not to textual works (content). Monographic publications include individual sections or chapters where these are made separately available and certain types of related products that are available to the public irrespective of whether those publications are made available for sale or on a gratis basis. Examples of applicable and non-applicable products are provided in Annex A.

  This ballot closes on Friday, May 6, 2016.

• Systematic Review of ISO 11940-2:2007 Information and documentation - Transliteration of Thai characters into Latin characters Part 2: Simplified transcription of Thai language

  This is a ballot for the five-year systematic review of the TC46 standard ISO 11940-2:2007 Information and documentation - Transliteration of Thai characters into Latin characters Part 2: Simplified transcription of Thai language.

  This part of ISO 11940 provides a specification for the conversion of Thai characters (or the transliteration of Thai obtained from ISO 11940:1998, written here) into a broad phonetic transcription. The results of the application of the rules of this part of ISO 11940 are written here [in italics between square brackets]. Since some vowels in Thai are written before the consonant which they follow in speech, text needs to be processed before the conversion takes place. The preposed vowels เ- , แ- , ใ- , ไ- , and โ- are to be placed after an initial or an initial cluster so that the phonotactics of the transposition will behave the same way in the languages that make use of the Latin script. The transcription obtained using this part of ISO 11940 cannot be converted back to the transliteration which usually can be retransliterated to the Thai characters. Certain Thai words can have more than one reading depending on their meaning in a certain context. It is best for a transcriber to have a knowledge of the Thai language. The simplified phonetic transcription system devised here aims to be done automatically by machine with the minor assistance of humans who will select the correct transcription in relation to its meaning, provided that pronunciation rules can be written in computer algorithm. A human decision is needed in instances where a word has more than one choice of phonetic transcription.

  This ballot closes on Friday, June 3, 2016.