The Automation Vendor Information and Advisory Committee (AVIAC) discussed a draft mission statement at its January 27th meeting in San Antonio. The proposed language states that AVIAC promotes and supports the creation, adoption, maintenance, and adherence to national standards in library automation, particularly as such standards affect the vendor community. AVIAC seeks to protect the users of library automation by working to ensure that library automation systems are based on national standards that provide for data integrity, data transferability, and interoperability." The statement was not adopted at the meeting because a majority of the participants would prefer a somewhat broader mission statement. The topic, therefore, will come up again at the June meeting in San Francisco.
AVIAC attendees also learned that a new version of NISO Z39.50, the record transfer standard, is out for balloting.
The revisions are designed to assure compliance with European standards. The patron record standard also is going out for ballot.
AVIAC is open to any company engaged in the development and/or sale of library automation systems, software, or services, or consulting in the field of library automation. It also is open to organizations or committees engaged in creating or adopting standards for library automation.
While not a trade association in the legal sense, AVIAC has provided a forum which appears to have encouraged companies to strengthen their commitment to standards. Particularly encouraging in the past two years has been the increased representation of vendors that market PC products. It is the opinion of the Contributing Editor that AVIAC played a major role in the movement of PC products toward MARC-formatted record retention and export.
