1 / 8 Results of a Survey on International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) Conducted by the National Diet Library, Japan
Purpose The National Diet Library, Japan (NDL) conducted a questionnaire survey of national libraries and bibliographic agencies around the world to obtain detailed information on their motives for introducing International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) and what changes in the management of data on the authors of domestic publications or in the creation of bibliographic sources have come about due to the introduction of ISNI.
Method The survey was conducted via an online questionnaire platform, with requests for participation sent by e-mail.
Period March 17, 2021 to April 30, 2021
Valid Answers 12 (2 of which were from the same institution)
Notes For questions 2 to 8, the number of libraries or institutions that selected each option is provided as the numerator of a fraction in which the denominator is the eligible respondents. For example, if the number of answers for a certain option is 2/4, it means that out of four eligible respondents, two chose that option
Preliminary question
Please tell us the name of the institution you are representing [Required]
Answers
Participation to
ISNI
Number of
Answers
British Library (BL)
Registration Agency
(RAG)
1
Casalini Libri (CL)
RAG
1
KB The National Library of the Netherlands (KB)
RAG
1
National Assembly Library of Korea (NAL)
RAG
1
Library of Congress, USA (LC)
Member
1
National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ)
Member
1
The National Library of Norway (NLN)
Member
1
German National Library (DNB)
Non-member
1
National Library Board Singapore (NLB)
Non-member
1
National Library of Australia (NLA)
Non-member
2
Swiss National Library (SNL)
Non-member
1
Question on participation in ISNI
Does your affiliated institution participate in ISNI? [Required]
Options
Number of Answers
Yes, it is a RAG of ISNI.
4/12
Yes, it is a Member of ISNI.
3/12
No.
5/12
- Two answers from the NLA
Questions for RAG A. For what reason(s) did your affiliated institution become a RAG? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers
2 / 8 To manage and promote distribution of information on creators as a national/regional bibliographic agency. 4/4 To use ISNI for copyright management within the nation/region. 1/4 To create authority records more efficiently. 3/4 To respond to the broadening scope of library collections. 2/4 Other (Specify) 1/4
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer BL To work with the publishing supply chain in the UK
B. What parties is your institution authorized to assign/allocate ISNIs to? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers Persons and organizations that contributed to creating content published within a specific area (e.g. nation, state) 2/4 Persons and organizations that contributed to creating content of a specific type of media (e.g. books, academic texts, musical compositions) 0/4 Persons and organizations that contributed to creating content in a specific language 0/4 Other (Specify) 3/4
Specific Answers for “Other (Specify)” Respondents Answers NAL In my understanding, our library is authorized to allocate ISNIs to any persons and organizations. BL Persons and organizations connected to content in our collections and any persons and organizations who use our BL ISNI Registration Service. Bulk load requests can be processed via negotiation CL Persons and organizations that contributed to creating content published not only within a specific area
C. How does your institution use ISNI identifiers and services in its products and business? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers It started a new service targeting publishers, right holders, or content distributors. 2/4 It refers to data made available through the ISNI database in creating authority records. 4/4 It registers ISNI identifiers in a specific field of its catalogs. 3/4 It uses ISNI as institutional identifiers. 2/4 It has not yet started implementing ISNI in its products and business. 0/4 Other (Specify) 0/4
D. How are ISNIs allocated? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers ISNIs are allocated to authors and/or contributors in response to applications from persons and/or organizations. 3/4 ISNIs are allocated to authors and/or contributors in response to bulk requests from publishers. 2/4 ISNIs are allocated to authors and/or publishers of library materials that are within the scope of legal deposit or included in the national bibliography. 2/4 ISNIs are allocated as part of the process of creating authority records. 2/4
3 / 8 Other (Specify) 1/4
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer NAL ISNIs are mainly allocated to researchers active in Korea.
E. Does your institution accept requests for ISNIs from individuals? [Required] Options Number of Answers Yes. 3/4 No. 1/4
F. Does your institution charge fees for allocating ISNIs? [Required] Options Number of Answers Yes. 2/4 No. 2/4
G. Does your institution cooperate with other institutions in implementing and promoting the use of ISNI? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers It cooperates with publishers. 2/4 It cooperates with other libraries with which it has formed a consortium. 2/4 It cooperates with other libraries but has not formed a consortium. 3/4 It does not cooperate with other institutions. 0/4 Other (Specify) 3/4
Specific Answers for “Other (Specify)” Respondents Answers NAL It cooperates with research institutes and university libraries with which it has formed sort of a consortium. BL ISNI Music Consultation Group and ISNI Libraries Consultation Group CL PCC
H. If your institution has formed or joined a consortium, please tell us why. Respondents Answers NAL Sharing data and promoting the use of ISNIs. BL Training, support and developing best practice for legal deposit workflows (6 legal deposit libraries in the UK and Ireland who have a shared cataloguing programme) CL Casalini supports the SVDE initiative to promote the sharing of data and services according to the linked open data paradigm
I. If your institution has joined VIAF, why does it participate in both VIAF and ISNI? (Select all that apply.) Options Number of Answers The authors and/or contributors that your institution allocates ISNI identifiers to are different from those your institution creates authority data about, which are to be provided to VIAF. 0/4 To use data only accessible to ISNI RAG. 1/4 To increase the quality of the institution’s own authority data by participating in both ISNI and VIAF. 0/4 Other (Specify) 1/4
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer
4 / 8 BL Can't work directly with VIAF as it only harvests data whereas ISNI is an interactive database.
Questions for Members A. For what reason(s) did your affiliated institution become a Member? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers To manage information on creators as a national/regional bibliographic agency. 2/3 To use ISNI for copyright management within the nation/region. 0/3 To create authority records more efficiently. 1/3 To respond to the broadening scope of library collections. 1/3 Other (Specify) 0/3
B. Does your institution plan to become a RAG in the future? If yes, please tell us why. No respondent answered “yes” to this question.
C. How does your institution use ISNI identifiers and services in its products and business? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers It started a new service targeting publishers, right holders, or content distributors. 0/3 It refers to data made available through ISNI databases in creating authority records. 1/3 It registers ISNI identifiers in a specific field of its catalogs. 0/3 It uses ISNI as institutional identifiers. 0/3 It has not yet started implementing ISNI in its products and business. 2/3 Other (Specify) 0/3
D. If your institution has joined VIAF, why does it participate in both VIAF and ISNI? (Select all that apply.) Options Number of Answers The authors and/or contributors that your institution allocates ISNI identifiers to are different from those your institution creates authority data about, which are to be provided to VIAF. 0/3 To use data only accessible to ISNI Members. 0/3 To increase the quality of the institution’s own authority data by participating in both ISNI and VIAF. 3/3 Other (Specify) 0/3
Questions for non-members A. Has there been any consideration of participating in ISNI in the future at your affiliated institution? [Required] Options Number of Answers It is considering becoming a RAG. 0/5 It is considering becoming a Member. 1/5 No consideration has been made. 2/5
- One answer from the NLA It decided not to participate. 2/5
- One answer from the NLA
B. Why is your institution considering of participating in ISNI? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers To manage and promote distribution of information on creators as a national/regional bibliographic agency. 1/1 To use ISNI for copyright management within the nation/region. 0/1 To create authority records more efficiently. 1/1
5 / 8 To respond to the broadening scope of library collections. 1/1 Other (Specify) 1/1
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer DNB We'll have a close cooperation with a Registration Agency / Service Provider in the book industry for registration of new ISNIs
C. For what reason(s) is your institution not a RAG or Member of ISNI? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers Another institution(s) in the same field or area is already participating in ISNI. 2/4
- One answer from the NLA It already participates in other project(s) with a similar concept. 1/4 Other (Specify) 1/4
- One answer from the NLA
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer NLA Benefits to our user community do not equal the value of resourcing required to support participation
D. Does your institution use ISNI services? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers It refers to information made public by ISNI in creating authority records. 3/5
- One answer from the NLA It registers ISNI identifiers in a specific field of its catalogs. 0/5 It does not use ISNI. 1/5 Other (Specify) 1/5
- One answer from the NLA
Specific Answer for “Other (Specify)” Respondent Answer NLA ISNI is accepted from participating partner libraries but the number is very small
Questions on ISNI implementation A. What did you gain by implementing ISNI? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers The data creating process became more efficient due to sharing the same identifiers with libraries, publishers and distributors. 3/7 It became possible to uniquely identify authors and contributors of collections for which authority control had not been thorough. 4/7 It became easier to convert the institution’s own data into Linked Open Data. 2/7 Copyright management became easier. 1/7 Other (Specify) 3/7
Specific Answers for “Other (Specify)” Respondents Answers BL (RAG) All processes not fully implemented yet but this is the direction we are travelling in. LC (Member) no notable gains so far NLNZ (Member) We have not yet had the staffing capacity in our metadata team to consider how best to implement ISNI
6 / 8 B. How is ISNI-related work staffed? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers We added new staff dedicated to work related to ISNI membership as a RAG or Member. 3/7 We added new staff dedicated to work related to ISNI as the ISNI Quality Team. 2/7 ISNI-related work was added to the responsibilities of an existing job. 4/7 Other (Specify) 3/7
Specific Answers for “Other (Specify)” Respondents Answers NLN (Member) We have so far only added ISNIs to existing records in the Authority File by exporting data to the ISNI database. LC (Member) no changes to staffing to handle ISNI NLNZ (Member) It was hoped to add responsibility for this to the work of our Name Authority Record Co-ordinator, but that person does not have capacity to undertake additional work.
C. Were there any new works brought up by participating in ISNI? If yes, please specify.
Respondents
Answers
NAL (RAG)
To establish a new process and system for allocating ISNIs and handling
data.
BL (RAG)
Formed the Quality Team as a Founding Member to provide services to the
ISNI-IA. Quality Team duties such as answering user queries, training other
members, data sampling
CL (RAG)
Enhanced and improved our cataloging module (Olisuite/Wecat of @Cult)
NLN (Member)
Yes, extracting records from the Authority File and sending them to the ISNI
database.
LC (Member)
No
D. How many staff members are involved in ISNI-related work? [Required] Respondents Answers KB (RAG) 10 NAL (RAG) One and a half BL (RAG) 9 CL (RAG) We started with 3 but we plan to increase to 6 NLN (Member) 3, but only part time. LC (Member) none NLNZ (Member) The plans (not yet implemented) were for one staff member to have this added to their responsibilities.
E. What were the difficulties in implementing ISNI? (Select all that apply.) [Required] Options Number of Answers Adequate staffing for handling ISNI-related work 3/7 Establishing the ISNI-related business and operations 2/7 Staff training 1/7 System development/refurbishment 4/7 Other (Specify) 2/7
Specific Answers for “Other (Specify)” Respondents Answers NLN(Member) No LC(Member) no formal implementation, yet
F. Are there any skills and competencies that are required in performing ISNI-related work? If yes,