BnF: First National Library In the World to Become an ISNI Registration Agency

2014-02-26

The National Library of France becomes ISNI Registration Agency: for a persistent identification of persons and organizations

 In January 2014 the BnF was appointed as ISNI Registration Agency by the ISNI- International Agency. The BnF is the first national library in the world to make such a commitment.

“I welcome the BnF as ISNI Registration Agency. The ISNI database (International Standard Name Identifier) already contains nearly 7.5 million of names and is the most reliable global repository of contributors and distributers of creative works. The BnF has played an essen- tial role in the development of ISNI and I am most pleased that now it will play an equally important role with respect to the French authors and publishers,” declares Olav Stokkmo, president of the ISNI International Agency (ISNI-IA).

The missions of the ISNI Registration Agency will be fulfilled by the Bibliographic and Digital Information department within the Directorate of Services and Networks. The Agency will first focus on the identification needs related to materials subject to legal deposit, collected and described by the BnF, with a particular emphasis on French publications. In the future it might cover the needs of other French organizations.

These identifiers are provided, in different formats (MARC, RDF), through the current and retrospective bibliographic datasets that the BnF offers free of charge to its partners and data reusers, in compliance with her open public data policy.

By diffusing the ISNI identifiers and by sharing its expertise in this area, the BnF will provide to stakeholders from various communities a reliable, normalized tool essential to the dissemination and the interoperability of French resources on the web.

By becoming an ISNI Registration Agency, the BnF demonstrates its capacity of taking on innovating projects at the international scale. Breaking down data silos, interoperability with other communities both from the public and private sector, promotion on the web of data of trustful data created by libraries, such are the BnF’s motivations in this commitment.

For more information about the ISNI Registration Agency at the BnF 

For more information about how to get an ISNI

For the French press release

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Press contacts BnF :

Claudine Hermabessière, Head of Press Office - + 33 01 53 79 41 18 - [email protected]

Hélène Crenon, Press Officer - + 33 01 53 79 46 76 - [email protected]