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What is ISNI?
International Standard Name Identifier—an International Standard Name Identifier—an ISO (International Standards Organization) standard developed as a global identification system of Public Identities of Parties. It identifies millions of contributors to creative works and those active in their distribution, incl. writers, artists, creators, researchers, publishers, and more. As of July 2017, most of the Public Identities are persons, but corporate bodies are included as well.
ISNI is not an authority file!
ISNI is a significantly different approach than that used for authority control in which we establish and maintain consistent forms of terms—names, subjects, titles—to be used as headings in the bib records of the library catalog. There, headings must not only be consistent, they must also be unique. The bibliographic information is organized using a single distinct spelling of a text string or heading—which is “authorized” or established in one that particular form and applied consistently.
Creating an ISNI is quite a different experience from what we are familiar with as catalogers. Generally when creating a local or NACO authority we are basing the authority on information presented on a resource in handour library's collection or for which our library has licensed access, but that is not necessarily true when creating an ISNI. We might not have anything in hand and in many cases the names we are working with are primarily outside the library silo, in terms of the material we work on.
Another difference is the milieu (peer sources)—ISNI contributors are not only other libraries but also property rights organizations, publishers, information aggregators, etc.) so we are placed in a much larger/global environment. (In ISNI, "source" refers to the contributing member organization (e.g., HARV), not the part of an information resource from which information is transcribed or recorded.)
It is important to remember that because ISNI is not an authority file, we are not trying to create a unique access point but an identity so different forms of name are gathered together under a single record for the appropriate identity, including multiple forms of the same preferred name and/or variants.
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See also ISNI Data Quality Policy.
One or more of the following actions may satisfy the algorithm and turn a provisional ISNI into an assigned one:
- adding our source
- adding a distinguishing bit of data like a birth date
- adding an external link.
It isn't necessary to include more information once an ISNI has been assigned, because the ISNI is designed to link to other information on the web about the identity.The more information you can add the more likely you are to get an assigned ISNI!
Note that the majority of records in the ISNI production database have a status of provisional, most commonly because there are no matches with records from other sources, or there may be too many matches. Potential matches need to be reviewed (manually) before they are upgraded to Assigned status.
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- Public view=(www.isni.org) no need for a user ID; includes only records with status “Assigned”
- Member view=as a member, the entire database is available. Members have maintenance capability via the web interface
- QT view=access to a higher level of maintenance (via web interface and WinIBW client)
***Need to talk about accept vs productionThere is also a test database called Accept, which is used for training.
ISNI Web Interface
See How to use the ISNI web portal. For more detailed information, continue below:
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First time use: brings you to a screen that most likely will present with browser security warning. Thiscan be ignored. Go to Advanced/make exception in browser settings (you should only have to do this once for each computer that you use)
What you’ll see
The first screen is a Search screen. Notice also other tabs for Results (of your search)
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- Expected: Fields in the Sources/Marc21 formats are arranged in numeric order
- Unexpected: there is no 1XX field because there is no “authorized form” as we are know it and are used to seeing in the NAR. Instead, the “Name” appears in the 7XX field, and there can be multiple 7XX fields.
- Each form of the name in the 7XX field is followed by a code for the source.
- The 4XX fields (which precede the 7XX fields) are the “alternate names” as determined by the institution that contributed the data. It also doesn’t matter if the forms repeat, or if the same form appears in both the 7XX and 4XX field…what is important is the source of the data (who says so and how many) In the end, all of the forms of the name in this record are linked to this one specific ISNI
- name variants are fine: spellings, middle name, with and without birth and death dates
- We cannot change data contributed by any other source. If we have data that contradicts what is already in a record, we can add it. We can notify the ISNIQT of an error, if we think it is important. For example, a contemporary architect listed as born in 1850 was reported; the difference of two years in a birth date probably would not be.
Creating a new record
See How to use the ISNI web portal. For more detailed information, continue below:
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Note! fairly extensive searching, outside of INSI, may be part of the process to clarify the identity: Google search, IMDb, or other resources depending on where the name is coming from. Then, in INSI:
- Search by Name:
- Search Browse Index to double check
- If you find no matches, select the WebCat tab at the top of the search screen.
Creation
Option to add Select Add an identity for an organization or for a person/fictional character. Select Person template: Person or fictional character, or: Add an identity: Organisation
- The template This is pre-populated with Identifier type which is a code for the contributing institution: XXXX
- Identifier (number): leave blank
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- Name is required! (even when editing and the name is the same as the name already supplied by another source)
- This from form of name will appear as the 700 field in the record
- Forename surname as found in the source, plus other information that you have
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