At Publishing Technology's Fall 2012 Executive Exchange customer event, Bowker Product Manager Laura Dawson introduces the ISTC (International Standard Text Identifier), ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier), and DOI (Digital Object Identifier), how they all work and increase product and content discoverability .

1. Emerging Identifiers
Everything You Wanted To Know But
Were Afraid To Ask

2. International Standard Text Identifier
ISTC

3. What It Is
• A 16-digit alphanumeric code
(ex. 0A32009012445C9B)

4. What It’s For
• Identifies “textual works” regardless of how they
are published
– Prose
– Lyrics (words only)
– Poetry
– Screenplays
– Audio scripts (radio, podcast)
– Stage scripts
– Other scripts
(sermons, speeches, presentations, lectures)

5. How Is This Different From an ISBN?
• ISBNs identify specific editions
– Paperback
– Hardcover
– ePub
– PDF
– Large print
• ISTCs identify the original expression
– One ISTC can be related to many ISBNs

6. How ISTC Works
New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
ISTC: 0A32009012445C9
Trade Paperback ISBN: ePub ISBN:
Hardcover ISBN:
9780123456790 9780123456778
9780123456789

7. What It’s Not For
• Abridged Editions
• Annotated Editions
• Compilations
• Critical Editions
• Excerpts
• Expurgated/Edited Editions
• Non-text material added (enhanced ebooks)
• Revised editions
• Translations
These are called derived works, and each gets its own
ISTC.

8. Why Not Give Them The Same
Number?
• ISTC is not a “work ID”
• It only identifies text strings
• The manifestations (editions) must each have
the identical text string to get an ISTC
• Thus, translations, abridgements, etc. have
separate ISTCs than the original work

9. Back Down Here On Planet Earth
• “New Moon” the movie script contains
different words than “New Moon” the novel.
So different ISTCs.
• “Luna Nueva”, the Spanish edition, contains
different words than either the movie or the
novel. So different ISTCs.

10. But What If I Want To Relate Them?
• Metadata allows for “Source ISTC”
• Allows linkages between the derivation and
the original
• Identifiers identify; metadata describes
• All derivations of “New Moon” can be related
by using “New Moon” the novel’s ISTC as a
Source ISTC in the metadata.

11. We Store Both

12. International Standard Name Identifier
ISNI

13. What It Is
• Another 16-digit identifier: A 15-digit numeric
identifier, plus a check digit (which could be an
X)

14. What It’s For
• Names

15. Names?
WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

16. Public Identities
• A person’s public identity (Madonna vs
Madonna Louise Ciccone)
• A company name (Random House)
• A fictional character (Sherlock Holmes)
The ISNI identifies these names.

17. Why?
• Two authors with the same name
– Thomas Wolfe – “You Can’t Go Home Again”
– Tom Wolfe – “Bonfire of the Vanities”
• One author, variant spellings/transliterations
– Fyodor Dostoevsky
– Fedor Dostoyevski

18. What About Pseudonyms/Aliases?
• They get separate ISNIs because they are
separate public identities
– Ruth Rendell vs Barbara Vine
– Stephen King vs Richard Bachmann
– David Johansen vs Buster Poindexter
• The metadata in each record refers to the
other ISNI, and describes the relationship
between them

19. How Will It Help?
• Search results
– Distinguishing the books of authors who are truly
different people
– Gathering together the books of an author with
multiple ways of spelling his name
– Keeping the books of pseudonyms distinct and
separate
• All of which means that customers find the
exact right book

20. Digital Object Identifier
DOI

21. What Is It?
• A dumb number (there’s no reliable meaning in
the digits)
• A prefix and a suffix separated by a slash
– 10.1000/123456
– The number 10 prefixes all DOIs
– The number after the 10 refers to the original
registration agency (though ownership of the object
itself can change)
– The suffix is the ID of the object – a book, a journal
article, a website

22. What Is It For?
• Stuff
• No, really…anything you want, so long as it’s in
a networked environment
– Book: doi:10.2345/978123456789 (yep, that’s an
ISBN in there – you can use other identifiers in
DOIs)
– Article: doi:10.2233/66r97q
– Author website: doi:10.0033/ISNI 1233 4566 7899
1111 2 (Use the ISNI!)

23. What Does It Do?
• It…RESOLVES.

24. Ummm…
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

25. It Helps You Find Things
• Persistence
– URLs change. DOIs don’t. If the author website uses a
DOI, it can get moved…but people will always be able
to find it.
• Multiple Resolution
– Sometimes a thing (a chapter) resides in more than
one place on the web. A single DOI can send a person
to the multiple places where that thing lives.
– Sometimes a thing (a book) has more than one
component (a chapter, an author biography, the book
itself). A single DOI can direct a person to each of
these components.

26. HOW???
• Once again, the identifier identifies. The
metadata describes.
– The identifier tells the DOI system that a thing
exists.
– The metadata tells the DOI system what that thing
is, where it lives, and how to get to it.
– Even if the metadata changes, the DOI remains
the same. (Think of the price of an ebook. The
price goes up, the ISBN is still the same.)

27. Who’s Using This Thing?
• Journals publishers
• The military
• Libraries
• STM publishers
• Other publishers who are selling “chunks”

28. How Would I Use It?
• Resolve an ISBN simultaneously to the
purchase page, the author website, and an
excerpt
• Resolve an ISBN to sub-book components
(chapters, charts, sections) which are sold
separately
• Resolve an ISBN to locations of additional
material – enhanced
content, supplements, lab
manuals, workbooks, card decks, calendars

29. The DOI Helps You Upsell
• Additional material
• Related products
– Other books
– T-shirts
– Games and toys
– Posters
– CDs
– DVDs
• If you can identify a thing, and you have the
rights to that thing, the DOI can help you organize
all that data so you can sell that thing

30. Questions?
• Laura.Dawson@bowker.com