Strategic Plan
NISO’s Vision
Our vision is a world where all benefit from the
unfettered exchange of information.
NISO’s Mission
NISO’s mission is to build knowledge, foster discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional communities.
Strategic Plans
NISO’s strategic planning is led by our Board of Directors, working with the Executive Director and staff. In October 2023, the Board approved the most recent NISO strategic plan for the three years starting October 2023 as proposed by an ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee, led by Board member Jonathan Clark. NISO's Executive Director, Todd Carpenter, recorded a presentation to serve as a guide to the document. This updated plan builds on the success NISO has seen following our 2019 merger with NFAIS. It takes into account our expanded membership, the growth of the NISO Plus Conference, as well as the NISO’s growing remit. The new plan positions NISO to aggressively and sustainably pursue new objectives and goals. The Board has also added a new set of underlying values to complement our vision and mission.
NISO’s Values
NISO seeks consensus among participants in our work and strives for outputs that serve a worldwide community.
NISO is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in everything we do.
NISO equally values the contributions of all voices in our processes.
NISO’s vision is one in which all parties involved with content creation and dissemination collaborate to build and support an infrastructure that allows users access to the information they seek. We welcome worldwide participation from all those involved in this ecosystem and while we recognize that, for various reasons, not everyone can participate, we still want to create an open and welcoming environment for all.
To support this vision, in 2023, the NISO Board has revised our approach to our strategic objectives. We recognize that community is at the heart of everything we do. We leverage the knowledge in this community to be able to show leadership for the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional sectors. This allows us to grow and expand our work. Our mission remains focused around the development of authoritative standards. Simultaneously, we value respect for differences of all kinds, social equity, kindness, collaboration, fairness, civility, humility, and inclusivity. It is through engaging with the diversity of our community that we will produce the best solutions for the widest possible impact.
The Board identified the following themes for NISO to focus on over the next three years (2023-2026):
- Community — NISO nurtures an engaged, inclusive, and sustainable community. NISO is recognized for connecting diverse stakeholders and inspiring collaboration among them.
- Leadership — NISO builds knowledge through leadership and innovation in improving efficiency in our community. NISO is recognized for its expertise and considered an exemplar for standards development for information management.
- Growth — NISO grows meaningfully and expands its standards work and services portfolio in areas of highest demand and the greatest potential for expanding our resources. NISO is recognized for actively seeking new opportunities.
Under each of these themes, the NISO Board adopted a specific set of objectives, with related activities and key performance indicators to help track our progress. As well as reporting back to the Board on our activities, we will also be sharing regular updates in our Information Organized (I/O) newsletter and at our annual members meeting.
NISO’s previous strategic plans were published in 2020, 2018, 2015, 2011, and 2004.
The NISO Framework, which is "an overarching model and roadmap for all of NISO’s standards work," is reviewed regularly by our Architecture Committee.