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What is ISNI?

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 text string or heading—which is “authorized” or established in that particular form and applied consistently.

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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 identifier for an entity that can have different forms of name, none of which is considered the preferred or authorized form of name.

What is an ISNI?

ISNI identifies public identities of parties:

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An ISNI consists of a 16-digit number (including check digit).

How do you get an ISNI?

There are two levels of records:

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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.

Where does the ISNI data come from?

ISNI data comes primarily from the VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) database. VIAF contains name authority work carried out by agencies worldwide, many of which are national libraries (over 40), but there are non-VIAF contributors to ISNI as well.

Databases

Within ISNI there are 3 primary views or databases:

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There is also a test database for the web version and client called Accept, which is used for training.

ISNI Web Interface

See How to use the ISNI web portal. For more detailed information, continue below:

Logging on

See ISNI web links (restricted access)

What you’ll see

The first screen is a Search screen. Notice also other tabs for Results (of your search)

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Help: offers detailed information about the search options and how best to use them. Also offers explanation of the search indexes in the drop-down menu (APH, CN, etc.)

Searching

See How to use the ISNI web portal. For more detailed information, continue below:

Search terms

It can be helpful to experiment with the searching options on your own to get an idea of different results based on different search terms/combinations. See also ISNI Search: Guidelines and Examples: http://www.isni.org/filedepot_download/139/470

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Note: Results display 10 per screen/click on next to see remaining results in the search

More information

• Tab: Shortlist-takes you back to the Search results list (or use back arrow)
• On left: Show Hints or Hide hints

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• Tab: Sources Data (PICA data format)
• Tab: Marc21 format

Of interest

ISNI is designed to uniquely identify an entity; it is not intended to provide access to comprehensive information about a public identity. It can provide links to sources where detailed information is held, and provides a link for occurrences of the public identity across databases on the web.

• 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 know it and are used to seeing in the NAF. 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 name variants 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 central QT 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:

Avoid duplicates

Do a thorough search to avoid creating a duplicate. Perform the search several ways.

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• 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

Select Add an identity: Person or fictional character, or: Add an identity: Organisation
 

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And you have created a record!

Enhancing a record

See How to use the ISNI web portal. For more detailed information, continue below:

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• To change record status from provisional to assigned;
• To provide additional info about the identity that will help to distinguish it from other identities. 

How to enhance another institution's record

1. Find existing record created by other source
2. Check record status: provisional/assigned
3. Add institutional identifier (e.g. HARV) and the Name; Save. This may be sufficient. If record status is still provisional, then
4. Add its web page as additional information, for example

How to enhance your institution's record

1. Find existing XXXX-created record 
2. Add a Relationship  (Related; Relationship Type);  Save

How to create links between records

1. Find existing record > (Related; Relationship)
2. Add relationship.  If related identity is also in ISNI, follow the prompts to:
   
   1. search; compare/choose; add see also or colleague/collaborator relationship; link); Save

Identify and report problems and duplicates

There are four ways possible duplicates can arise:

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Also make a General note when you have found a mixed identity (names of different persons in one ISNI record), or another error you wish to see corrected. 

See also & documentation

For beginners, see in particular the documents noted with "useful!" on the ISNI documentation page.