Saturday, November 6, 2010 11:15 AM - 12:00 PM Speakers: Helen Henderson, Ringgold, Inc; Mark Bide, EDItEUR; Brian Green, International ISBN Agency

1. Who are we? what is it? what can I
do with it? – and why does it matter?
Some thoughts on identity and identification in an
increasingly complex environment

2. Agenda
 Introduction
 Mark Bide (EDItEUR)
 Identifying people, places and organizations
 Helen Henderson (Ringgold)
 Identifying resources
 Brian Green (International ISBN Agency)
 Identifying deals
 Mark Bide (EDItEUR)

3. Introduction
Mark Bide

4. The things we need to identify: the <indecs>
model of commerce
People
make
Stuffis used by
Deals
do
about

5. What are identifiers?
 An identifier is a unique expression in a written
format either by a code, by numbers or by the
combination of both to distinguish variations from
one to another among a class of substances, items,
or objects….
 In computer science, identifiers are lexical tokens
(that is, “nouns”) that name entities (or “things”). The
concept is analogous to that of a "name." Identifiers
are used extensively in virtually all information
processing systems.
 Naming entities makes it possible to refer to
them, which is essential for any kind of symbolic
processing.
[Based on Wikipedia]

6. Why do we need identifiers?
 Identifiers are “just” a special class of name
 Unique within a given context
 Why do we assign identifiers?
 Collocation – to bring together instances of the same thing
 Disambiguation – to distinguish things that are not the same
 What does “the same” mean?
 Whether things are or are not the same is always contextual
 For example, an ISBN identifies a class of individual instances as
being “the same” for particular purposes – meaning is not
universal
 Why does this matter?
 Unambiguous communication…
 …particularly from machine to machine (people don’t often use
unique identifiers in discourse – “that one over there” is usually
enough)

7. Why do we need standard identifiers?
 When there is a need to communicate across
organizational boundaries – within any sort of
“supply chain”…
 …particularly where anyone in the supply chain
needs to manage and aggregate information from
multiple sources
 That means nearly everyone, particularly in a digital
supply chain
 What matters about standard identifiers?
 That their semantic should be clear to everyone…
 …in other words, everyone in the chain knows what type
of thing they are identifying

8. Why do we need identifiers?
“The Web was designed as an information space, with the
goal that it should be useful not only for human–human
communication, but that also machines would be able to
participate… One of the major obstacles to this has been
the fact that most information on the Web was designed
for human consumption.”
Tim Berners-Lee The Semantic Web (1998)

9. So, if we are to make the semantic web a
reality…
 We need to establish “chains of identifiers”
 Identifiers with explicit and well understood semantics
 We need to link them together with “relators” which
have well-defined semantics
 We need to establish and manage the relationships that
are important to us
 We need to be careful about trivializing the task
 Everything is related to everything else at some level
 Saying that two things “are the same” is complex,
because it is always contextual [an ISBN does not identify
“a book”]

10. Identifying people, places and
organizations
Helen Henderson

11. Identifiers: People, Places and
Organizations
Helen Henderson
Ringgold
helen@ringgold.com

12. Types of Identifiers (in our space)
o Organizations
o D-U-N-S
o …. and many tax related
identifiers
o ISIL
o ISNI
o MARC Org Code
o OCLC Symbol
o People
o ISNI
o Researcher ID
o Scopus Author Identifier
o ORCID
o Places
o GLN
o SAN
o UN LOC

13. What is the need?
o Places
o Delivery of physical objects
o Tax regime
o People
o Rights payments
o Author affiliation (ownership)
o Disambiguation
o Organizations
o Delivery and entitlements
o Access rights
o Hierarchy
o Usually comes down to …… MONEY

14. Places
o GLN (Global Locator Number)
o Physical location
o Legal entity
o Maintained by GS1 (formerly EAN International)
o SAN (Standard Address Number)
o Specific street address
o ANSI/NISO standard
o Maintained by Bowker
o UN LOC (United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations)
o Trade locations (e.g. airports, ports)
o Coordinates
o Maintained by UN Economic Commission for Europe

15. People
o ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier)
o “Names” include people and organizations
o Initial emphasis rights holders
o Maintained by International ISNI Agency (consortium of national libraries and
bibliographic utilities)
o Virtual International Authority File
o Jointly run by LC, BnF, DNB and OCLC
o Implemented and hosted by OCLC
o ~20 files from around the world
o 13 million name records
o 10 million clusters
o Plan to include other names
• Corporations, works, geographics, families, imaginary characters, etc.
• Not topical subject headings

16. More People
o Proprietary Author Identifiers
o Scopus (Elsevier)
o Scholar Universe (COS)
o Researcher ID (Thomson Reuters)
o RePEc (Research Paper in Economics)
o ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID)
o Open version of Thomson Reuter’s Researcher ID
o Most ‘social’
• Claiming IDs
• Interactive verification of associated works
• Pulling together several current initiatives
o Driven by STM, university communities
o Primarily interested in researchers
o Large number of participants
o Mostly concerned with present and future names

17. Organizations
o OCLC Symbol
o Library identifier
o Maintained by OCLC
o ISNI (International Standard
Name Identifier – ISO 27729)
o Recently adopted
o Emphasis on individuals
o Central registry
o Registration agencies
o D-U-N-S …. and many tax related
identifiers
o Related to corporate entities
o ISIL (International Standard
Identifier for Libraries - ISO
15511)
o Libraries only
o National agencies
o MARC Org Code
o Library identifier
o Maintained by LC

18. More organizations
o OCLC WorldCat Registry ID
o Library identifier
o Voluntary registration and maintenance
o NISO I2
o International Institutional Identifier
o Hierarchical structure with relationships
o Identifies “licensing units”
o May be a sub-registry of ISNI, still to be decided
o Ringgold Identifier
o 200,000 institutions or institutional entities
o Worldwide, all categories
o Used by over 40 publishers and agents

19. Existing Identifiers Investigated for use
with I2
Identifier Name Current Status
ISIL (ISO 15511) International Standard
OCLC symbol OCLC specific
OCLC WorldCat Registry ID OCLC specific
MARC organization code MARC standard
ISNI (ISO 27729) Final Committee draft
SAN Standard address number NISO standard Z39.43-1993
GLN Global location number GS1 (formerly EAN international)
DUNS Data Universal Numbering Dun and Bradstreet
International Standard for Describing Institutions with
Archival Holdings Information (ISDIAH) New standard 2008 – International Council on Archives

20. What is next for I2?
o NISO Working Group
o Publishers
o Agents
o Distributors
o Libraries
o Hosting services
o Institutional Repositories
o Scenarios
o Electronic supply chain
o Consortia
o Research funding
o Inter-library loan
o Implementation

21. Identifying resources
Brian Green

22. … e-books in particular
Brian Green
International ISBN Agency

23. “What matters is that everyone in the chain
knows what type of thing they are identifying”
FRBR: Endeavour
ITEM
WORK
EXPRESSION
MANIFESTATIO
N
realization
embodimen
t
exemplar
realizationO
f
embodiment
Of
exemplarOf
Book Industry
concept: e.g.
Moby-Dick
e.g. author’s
original text
both concept and
content

24. ISTC/ISBN
ACCESSIO
N Number
ISTC
ISBN
embodimen
t
exemplar
embodiment
Of
exemplarOf
“What matters is that everyone in the chain
knows what type of thing they are identifying”

25. “Collocation – to bring together instances of
the same thing”
 The International Standard Text Code
 Unambiguously identifies a textual work, even though it
may be published in many different forms (One ISTC
may link to many ISBNs)
 For use in improved discovery services, collocation,
rights and royalties etc.
 Identifies content separately from the products which
contain it
 Also identifies the relationships between items of content
(ONIX for ISTC registration)
 e.g. Abridged, Annotated, Compilation, Critical, Excerpt,
Expurgated, Non-text material added or revised, Revised,
Translated

26. Publisher record at work level
Example from Publishing Technology

27. Link to various manifestations
Example from Publishing Technology

28. Link to various manifestations
Example from Publishing Technology
One metadata
record – multiple
ISBNS

29. “Disambiguation – to distinguish things that
are not the same”
 Under “Rules of assignment”, the 2005 revision of
the ISBN standard (ISO 2108) says:
 Different product forms (e.g. hardcover, paperback,
Braille, audio-book, video, online electronic publication)
shall be assigned separate ISBNs
 Each different format of an electronic publication (e.g.
‘.lit’, ‘.pdf’, ‘.html’, ‘.pdb’) that is published and made
separately available shall be given a separate ISBN.
 Seemed adequate at the time but file format not
really an appropriate indicator of different products

30. What differentiates e-book products?
 Ability to render book
 Does it work on my device/platform/software?
 User’s experience and usage rights
 What can I do with it?
 File format only part of the story. DRM is what really
differentiates e-book products and platforms

31. Why identify separate e-book products?
 To ensure that the e-book ordered is the correct one
for the user’s e-reader device and/or software
platform
 To enable bibliographic databases to provide
information about the different available versions of
an e-book
 To facilitate electronic trading of e-books, particularly
where multiple formats are sold through the same
channel
 To facilitate product level reporting of sales and
usage and facilitate management of e-book products

32. The e-book supply chain
 For printed books, publishers assign ISBNs to each
format, and that product and it’s ISBN remains
constant throughout the supply chain
 For e-books, there is an additional layer of
intermediaries providing conversion services to
publishers and producing new e-book products
 Many publishers only produce a single generic file
format (e.g. “.epub” or “PDF”), and intermediaries or
Internet retailers add technical rights protection
(DRM) and create different formats/products

33. Publisher
Library
platformConversion
Random,
HarperCollins,
Faber...
Libre Digital,
Ingram,
PubDim, VCI...
PDF
XML
Disassemble
Markup
Convert
Master
format
.epub
PDF
.epub/PDF
.epub
PDF
MyiLibrary, Overdrive etc.
NetLibrary
Add DRM
Library
EDI order
EDI order
Library
ebrary
Add DRM
Convert
Add DRM
Acct No
epub+DRM
OPAC
Library ID
Consumer
Overdrive “white label”...
Jobber
YBP, Ingram etc

34. New ISBN rule introduced 2008
 Since some publishers do not provide separate
ISBNs for each version and some customers,
including libraries, need unique identification of
products from different platforms with different
functionality…
 If a publisher does not identify each format with a
separate ISBN, intermediaries/re-sellers may do so
on their behalf
 Not ideal but a necessary compromise until publishers
assign their own ISBNs
 Requires central bibliographic agency to collect and list
ISBNs and related metadata

35. What’s actually happening?
 Everything. It’s like the 1960’s before ISBN.
 Some publishers assign separate ISBNs to each
version
 Some assign the same ISBN to all versions
 Some publishers assign an ISBN to the epub file and
let third parties assign their own ISBNs or proprietary
identifiers to their versions
 Sometimes these proprietary “ISBN-like” identifiers
actually duplicate ISBNs assigned to books already
published elsewhere

36. All
different

37. All the
same

44. “Whether things are or are not the same is
always contextual”
 Results of ISBN survey 2009/2010:
 There is a need for each digital format to be
separately identified at various points in the supply
chain
 However there seems to be a need for a more
abstract generic identifier to collocate different
versions of the same books
 ISTC identifies underlying textual works and is a
potentially useful way of aggregating different
manifestations and their ISBNs regardless of media

45. “The use of a single ISBN would enable provider-neutral records and
act similarly to eISSNs. Open link resolution, federated search, and
unified discovery platforms would also benefit from the use of a single
eISBN.
It is also useful to have some sort of identifier by platform, particularly
for back-end vendor operations.”
Library comments from ISBNsurvey
“Essential to have a single 'matching point' to compare collections, pull-
in usage data, exclude already-purchased titles from lists, etc.
Useful to have a second ISBN for each platform as different platforms
have different DRM etc. Combined with a single ISBN for all formats,
would help to identify where we have purchased the same title from
more than one platform.”

46. In summary
 The use of a single ISBN to identify multiple e-book
formats is confusing and potentially unsafe
 If two things are given the same identifier it becomes
very hard to distinguish between them if/when we
need to
 The International ISBN Agency continues to
recommend that publishers should assign ISBNs to
each e-book version separately available
(n.b.“version” needs defining)
 …but we also need to use identifiers at higher levels
of abstraction (ISTC?)
 Consistent application of standard identifiers is
essential
 “particularly where anyone in the supply chain needs

47. Identifying “deals”
Mark Bide

48. We are getting better at automating license
communication
48
 Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org –
standard licences most appropriate for noncommercial
content [?] machine and human readable – and related
approaches such as the UK’s “Open Government
Licence”
 ONIX-PL: www.editeur.org – a standard for the
communication of publishers licenses to libraries, to
make complex information human readable
 ACAP: www.the-acap.org – a standard machine to
machine communication of permissions, developed
mainly in support of the news sector
 PLUS Coalition: http://www.useplus.com – standards for
licensing photographs and other visual images, machine
and human readable
 ODRL: http://odrl.net/ Open Digital Rights Language –
“machine decidable permissions” – v2.0 in development

49. Related infrastructural developments
49
 The Book Rights Registry (“the Google Settlement”):
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
 Global Repertoire Database (GRD)
http://globalrepertoiredatabase.com/faq.html
 The ARROW project:
http://www.arrow-net.eu/
 PLUS seeking to establish registries for visual
images

50. Standards for license identification
 Musical Works License Identifier (MWLI)
 There appears to be work to do here…..

51. Conclusions and discussion

52. Some questions for discussion
 At what level would you like to see manifestations
separately identified?
 By channel?
 By DRM / usage features?
 Should 2 e-book versions from different channels but with
the same usage features share an ISBN
 At what level would you like to see them collocated?
 All manifestations regardless of media?
 All e-books (but excluding print and audio)?
 What can libraries do about it?

53. Helen Henderson helen@ringgold.com
Brian Green brian@isbn-international.org
Mark Bide mark@editeur.org
ISBN: www.isbn-international.org
ISTC: www.istc-international.org
53
Thanks for coming