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