INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTATION STANDARDS

The American Magazine of Standards regularly uses as its banner headline the anonymous quotation ‘Standardization is dynamic, not static; it means not to stand still, but to move forward together’. It is spaced out with each word of the estimable text separated for double emphasis, and it always evokes in me an uncomfortable picture of a small pious nod of concurrence from the reader before he eases back into a more comfortable position in his pew for a worthy sermon. The word ‘standardization’ does often have a numbing effect and a pejorative sound. Standards do seem dull, and it is important to break through this psychological barrier.