International Standard Music Number (ISMN).
Walravens, Hartmut
The latest Annual General Assembly of the ISMN community took place
in Bonn, Germany, on June 29-30. Thus ISMN returned to a German venue
after quite some years; the German ISMN administration is now with the
German Music Publishers Association in Bonn. The next AGM will directly
follow that of the related ISO Standard ISBN: Lisbon, Portugal, 13-15
September 2010 (13/14 ISBN, 14/15 ISMN).
Standard
The standard revision was completed and the new standard published.
No problems with the implementation were reported. The revised standard
has been in force as of Jan. 1, 2008.
The annual ISO TC46/SC9 meeting took place in May on Jeju Island,
Korea. Major subjects were progress on new ISO standards, especially DOI and ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) and enhanced
interoperability between existing identifiers.
As of last year, the International ISMN Agency has an A Liaison
with TC46.
Publications
The latest ISMN Newsletter--also available on the Website--provides
information on the 2009 AGM.
Just off the press is an ISBN and ISMN Bibliography; it contains a
large amount of grey literature on the subjects: Hartmut Walravens: ISBN
(International Standard Book Number) Bibliography. Literature on the
ISBN and ISMN (International Standard Music Number) from all over the
world. Berlin: Simon Verlag 2010. 228 p. ISBN 978-3-940862-21-1, 25,00
[euro].
Membership
There are now 51 ISMN agencies, the latest member is Colombia.
There is progress in the negotiations with further interested
countries:
--In the Netherlands, Muziek Centrum Nederland has been evaluating
the applications of the ISMN; hopefully, they will become an ISMN agency
soon.
--China is preparing the introduction of ISMN.
--At the beginning of May, an information seminar was conducted in
Seoul, Korea, at the National Library which is considering the
introduction of the ISMN.
--In the US, Library of Congress has successfully conducted a
feasibility test on ISMN implementation. They are now designing a
website and are seeking contact with the music publishers as well as
wholesalers and large retailers, like Amazon and the Music Publishers
Association. Publicity campaigns may be necessary to cover the complex
US music sector.
Publishers' database
A directory of music publishers with their ISMN prefixes has been
prepared for quite some time and will soon be installed on the
International Agency's website. It succeeds to the former printed
directory which is not continued by the publisher. Also, it will be no
longer possible to offer worldwide music publisher information--it would
be too much of an effort. Therefore only ISMN members will be listed, in
agreement with the stipulations of the standard.
Applications
ISMN has not yet reached the stage where the whole sheetmusic
sector is geared to the ISMN--as the book sector to ISBN. A promising
application is IDNV marketed by the German and the British ISMN agencies
who cooperate on this venture. It is a Music in Print catalogue with
currently about 400,000 titles, and it is growing. While printed music
reaches a much smaller audience than books, an advantage is the
worldwide market as there is no language barrier. Thus a truly
international Music in Print would make the ISMN indispensable. . . .
In Australia, TROVE is the information system of the National
Library of Australia, including music (formerly: Music Australia); it is
an ideal basis for the ISMN, too. Agency Projects
--Improved performance of the ISMN website, with more information
on the benefits (applications), a News Section, more up-to-date content,
better interfaces to music dealers and wholesalers, more
interoperability between related identifiers.
--Publication of an informative brochure about ISMN and its
application--it should be more general than the ISMN Manual and targeted
at a wider audience within the music and trade sectors.
--We try to find ways to motivate publishers, music dealers and
wholesalers to make more useof the the ISMN, especially in catalogues
and on the Internet.
An intern will work for six months at the Agency to design
improvements and devise an action plan.
Board
At the Bonn AGM, a new board had to be elected as its three-year
term was over. The board was re-elected and therefore consists of:
Dr. Hartmut Walravens, chair
Dr. Joachim Jaenecke, vice chair
Dr. Bettina von Seyfried, treasurer
http://ismn-international.org
email: ismn@ismn-international.org
Hartmut Walravens
Chair--International ISMN Agency