lSO/IEC 15897:2011 specifies the information that can appear in a Cultural Specification and defines the procedures for registering such specifications. The Cultural Specifications can include freeform Narrative Cultural Specifications and Repertoiremaps as described in lSO/IEC 15897:2011, POSIX Locales and Charmaps conforming to ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945, and other machine-parsable specifications such as FDCC-sets, Repertoiremaps and Charmaps following the recommendations of ISO/IEC TR 14652, and Cultural Specifications formatted using SGML or XML. The registry is in printed and electronic form.

lSO/IEC 15897:2011 sets out the procedures for registering cultural elements, both as narrative text and in a more formal manner, using the techniques of ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945, and other machine-processable formats such as those specified in ISO/IEC TR 14652.

lSO/IEC 15897:2011 registers amongst other items Narrative Cultural Specifications and Repertoiremaps, POSIX Locales and POSIX Charmaps as defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 9945, and other machine-parsable Cultural Specifications such as ISO/IEC TR 14652 FDCC-sets, Charmaps and Repertoiremaps, and Cultural Specifications in SGML or XML.