NISO Plus 2024 in Baltimore is just a few short weeks away, and if you haven’t yet registered, now’s the time! Early bird discounts are available through January 8, with additional discounts for NISO members and groups.
Now in its fifth year—and in person for the first time since 2020—the NISO Plus Conference will feature expert panel discussions developed by a planning committee of information professionals from around the world. Our program also includes inspiring keynotes from industry leaders, including Thomas Padilla’s opening address on “States of Open AI” and the annual Miles Conrad lecture, to be delivered this year by Ed Pentz. As always, the conference will emphasize discussion and interactivity in addition to presentations, with the goal of generating ideas that will shape future NISO projects.
Sessions at the NISO Plus conference in Baltimore will be organized into three tracks:
The metadata track covers the latest developments in this important area critical to the flow of information. Topics include equity in metadata, author identity and name changes in metadata, and new and emerging uses. And of course, it wouldn’t be a NISO Plus meeting without a session on persistent identifiers! This year we’ll explore the role of PIDs in assessing research.
As the call for greater transparency and accessibility in scholarly communications continues, a number of sessions consider what the transition to “open” means for librarians and content and service providers. The open scholarship track examines this topic across disciplines, including the humanities. It also includes sessions on open access books (and the infrastructure required to support them), open data, bibliodiversity, and the tools and tech supporting open research.
The third track, on artificial intelligence, incorporates ideas developed by attendees of October’s NISO Plus Forum and addresses some of the most pressing issues around new and emerging technologies falling under the category of “AI”: the ethical implications of using AI, the role of AI and machine learning in discovery and search, concerns around intellectual property, and educating authors and users about AI.
A pre-conference, “Introduction to AI and Machine Learning in Scholarly Communications,” will also be held on Monday, February 12, just prior to the main meeting. Attendees of this extended 101-style session led by Andromeda Yelton will come away with a thorough understanding of how machine learning systems work, what they are capable of, the services and systems used in scholarly communications, and the risks involved in those uses. Tickets for this timely professional development opportunity are just $100!
A final “wild card” track will feature updates on NISO standards, lightning presentations, and time reserved for important issues that arise between now and the conference.
(Thank you to our generous NISO Plus Baltimore sponsors: Silverchair, the Open Science Framework, Atypon, figshare (our repository host), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), ASTM International, Bowker, EBSCO, Atla, CHORUS, Edaptive Technologies, Modern Language Association, Open Athens, Project MUSE, SPIE, Stony Brook University Libraries, UC Berkeley Library, Crossref, and the journal Information Services and Use.)
For more information and updates on speakers, please check out the conference program. And remember—join us to help shape the future of our community, and register now to benefit from the early bird discount!
