Standardization

Standardization is the process of establishing standards, which are documented agreements containing technical specifications or other precise criteria to be used consistently as rules, guidelines, or definitions of characteristics.

A distinction should be made between "de jure" and "de facto" standards. IBM's PC and Microsoft's "Windows" are close to be examples of de facto standards (former and present). Within Library and Information Science (LIS) may Dewey Decimal Classification almost be regarded as a de facto standard in US public libraries (while the UDC is issued by British Standards Institution, BSI, and thus closer to be a de jure standard).

A standard is a document type issued by an standardization organization. ISO (International Standards Organization) is among the most important. TC 46 is ISO's Technical Committee (TC) for information and documentation standards. It has the following subcommittees:

TC46/WG1: Country and language coding
TC46/SC2: Conversion of Written Languages

TC46/SC3: Library and Information terminology.
TC46/SC4: Technical Interoperability, including standards for information retrieval

        and interlibrary loan, applications of SGML, data elements directories,

        data formats, character sets, codes and user commands.
TC46/SC8: Statistics and Performance Indicators.
TC46/SC9: The identification and description of information resources.
TC46/SC10: Physical keeping of Documents.

Sirbu & Estrin (1989) presents shortly theories about standardizing behavior and provides references to further literature.

Fujigaki (2006) demonstrates how the introduction of standards in a domain changes the research questions in that field.
 

Literature:

Fujigaki, Y. (2006). Changes in the research stream by standardization: A content analysis of the Archives of General Psychiatry during the establishment of operational diagnostic criteria. Scientometrics, 68(2), 203-212.
 

Informationsordbogen. Ordbog for informationshåndtering, bog og bibliotek. 2. udg. Udarbejdet af J.B.Friis-Hansen, Torben Høst, Poul Steen Larsen & Henning Spang-Hanssen. [Hellerup]: Dansk Standardiseringsråd, 1991. (DS/INF 27).
 

International Organization for Standardization (1988). ISO Standards Handbook 1: Documentation and information. Third edition. Geneva, ISO.

McKinley, C.  (Ed.). (1993). Standards: back to the future? Proceedings of a workshop on the future of bibliographic standards. Boston Spa: British Library, National Bibliographical Services, 1993. (NBS Occasional Publications, 2).

Sirbu, M. A. & Estrin, D. L. (1989), Standards. Vol. 4, pp. 173-176 IN: International Encyclopedia of Communications Vol. 1-4. Ed. by Erik Barnouw et al. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2006). Standardization. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization

Winthereik, B. & Vikkelsø, S. (2005). ICT and Integrated Care: Some Dilemmas of Standardising Inter-Organisational Communication. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 14(1), 43-67.

Journal: IT Standardnyt. Et nyhedsbrev om standardisering. Hellerup: Dansk Standardiseringsråd, 1.årg.-, 1990-. 

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 15-09-2006

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to be edited:

*BDI-sektoren er et område præget af standarder og standardisering. Der eksisterer f.eks. nationale og internationale standarder for vokabularier, principper og koordination af terminologi, karaktersæt og translitteration, dokumentbe­skrivelse, søgesprog (Common Command Language, *CCL), papir­formater, reproduktion m.v.

Et standardiseringsarbejde kan betragtes som en form for videnskabeligt arbejde. Som sådant må det søge en balance mellem to tendenser: På den ene side en tendens til vilkårlighed og unødvendig divergens, på den anden side en tendens til stivnen, til en lukken om normer, der virker hæmmende på en faglig og teknisk udvikling. Specielt på stærkt dynamiske områder kan standardisering let virke konserverende.

Nogle områder er mere velegnede til standardisering end andre. Enhver kan se fordelen ved standarder for f.eks. papirformater og alfabetiseringsregler. Mere problematisk er standardisering af grund­læggende videnskabelige begreber af kontroversiel natur, f.eks. begrebet "information". Synspunkter på og argumenter for bestemte definitioner af et sådant begreb er og bør være en del af den videnskabelige debat i selve forskningslitteraturen. Forsøg på at "standardisere" en sådan terminologi er at udråbe sig selv til en overdommer, der tilmed ikke eksplicit via referencer og analyser behøver forholde sig eksplicit til andre definitioner.