DAISY/NISO Standard

Officially, the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book

The DAISY Consortium has been selected by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) as the official maintenance agency for the DAISY/NISO Standard, officially, the ANSI/NISO Z39.86, Specifications for the Digital Talking Book, known as DAISY 3.

Development and implementation of DAISY standards is an ongoing and evolutionary process. Our Members, Friends, and the rest of the world can learn about the current recommendations by reading the Road Map to Implementation of DAISY, which describes the process of standards development and implementation. The DAISY Consortium is committed to ensure that your digital collections can be moved forward as the standards evolve.

In this portion of the DAISY Consortium's Web site, you will find the official maintenance and support information related to the DAISY/NISO Standard. The latest Specification, approved in 2005, can also be found at the NISO Web site.

• As a PDF file and in print for purchase on the NISO Web site
• As an XHTML file on the NISO Web site
• As an XHTML file, local copy, along with current Errata

The Advisory Committee develops the standards and maintains the Specification.

The entire DAISY Web site is dedicated to the implementation of DAISY, W3C,and NISO standards. Links on the sidebar navigation menu of this page are provided to the relevant components of maintenance and support of the DAISY/NISO Standard. A summary of each link follows:

• Advisory Committee lists members of the Advisory Committee, and presents an invitation for participation in the Committee.
• DTDs and CSSs list the normative Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSSs).
• Issues, Errata & Future Directions lists open issues and their status before the Advisory Committee.
• Minutes displays Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes from October 2004 to present.
• Modular Extensions explains guidelines for adding modular extensions,and lists modular extensions that are under development.
• Requirements Gathering is open from October 2007 through March 2008 for entering requirements as input to the future development of the Standard
• Samples provides printed material converted to XML files conforming to the DAISY/NISO Standard.
• Specifications lists the different DAISY technical specifications.
• Structure Guidelines provides information on the correct application of the DAISY/NISO Standard, including the XML element set DTBook. DTBook elements are used to mark up a textual content file containing part or all of the contents of a publication.

Questions concerning the DAISY/NISO Standard should be sent to the staff of the DAISY Consortium using the Contact Us form. Please select the "Z3986 Standards" message category.

Information about the previous superseded version, approved in 2002, can be found at: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS).