International Standard Music Number (ISMN).
Walravens, Hartmut
The 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; in the meantime, the German ISMN administration,
formerly with the Buchhandler-Vereinigung in Frankfurt, now with the
German Music Publishers Association in Bonn, had been restructured and
consolidated. The Rhenish State Museum offered modern facilities for the
meeting, including a restaurant, and the traditional ISMN dinner was
offered outside under clear skies.
Standard revision
The main issue was still the revision of the ISMN standard (ISO 10957), which is completed but the standard is not yet published. This
gave rise to some doubts in the community whether the new standard was
really in force. To make double sure ISO was asked for information:
The standard has become publicly available as a DIS which achieved
100% approval. This means that all of the technical aspects have been
agreed. There are only editorial aspects that might be changed from the
DIS to the published docuement. If they quote the standard without
mentioning the date, this means that they are using the most recent
edition, i.e. the publicly available DIS that revises the precedent
edition. If you look at the normative references introductory paragraph
(ISO Directives Pt 2, 6.2.2), it states:
"The following referenced documents are indispensable for the
application of this document. For dated references, only the edition
cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies."
As a rule, we (ISO/CS editors in accordance with the Dir. Pt 2)
consider that any undated reference is most recent one which is publicly
available. The most recent edition, in this case, can be considered to
be the DIS. Note that we (ISO/CS editors) always cite the title of the
DIS in this clause if it is the most recent edition.
Consequently, I don't see any reason why the registration
agencies would not be able to apply the DIS, because it is the most
recent edition and it is publicly available. The only changes that will
be made will be with regards to the aspects of the Registration
Authority and the registration agencies (administrative and editorial
aspects vis a vis ISO) but will not affect the technical content of how
the standard is to be applied. (Information from Dr. M.-L. Pelaprat,
Geneva, Dec. 21, 2008).
This underlines that the new standard has been in force since Jan.
1, 2008.
Part of the delay in publishing the standard is due to new ISO
procedures regarding the contract with the Registration authority. Also
a number of editorial changes have been made to the text of the
standard; they do not touch the substance but bring the wording in line
with other ISO standards.
Publications
The revised ISMN User's Manual was printed in a small edition
and distributed to the members. The updated version is available on the
Website of the International Agency. A new publicity flyer and a
newsletter featuring the last AGM were also published. An ISMN report
informed the German music sector: Neues von der ISMN (Internationale
Standard Musik aliennummer). Forum Musikbibliotheken 2008, 231-238.
AGM 2008
Last year's ISMN meeting took place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia,
by kind invitation of the Indonesian ISMN Agency (National Library of
Indonesia). It was splendidly organized and offered an opportunity for
outreach in the region. An international ISMN seminar which was part of
the programme was attended by more than 100 participants, some from the
neighbouring countries.
Membership
In 2008 there were three new members--Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg and
Bulgaria. In Europe there are only the Netherlands missing. As the Royal
Library in The Hague does not have a legal deposit for sheetmusic, they
are not an ovious candidate for an ISMN Agency. In the context of the
2009 IAML Conference which took place in Amsterdam, discussions were
renewed with the Dutch Music Centre in Amsterdam, and hopefully there
will be a solution to the issue. Romania is a member but the national
library needs some funding from the government to prepare the ground; so
it may take a while until the ISMN system becomes operational there.
Publishers' database
A directory of music publishers with their ISMN prefixes has been
prepared 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.
Interoperability
Close cooperation with the other ISO standards of the SC9 family
(ISSN, ISBN, ISRC, ISWC) is very important, and this is fostered by the
annual ISO TC46 meetings where reports are offered, current standards
issues discussed and, lately, interoperability has been on the agenda. A
small step forward may be the intention of having the next AGMs of ISBN
and ISMN aligned. So there is a chance of having both meetings in
September 2010 in Lisbon. There might be considerable synergy from a
joint meeting as travel funding is scarce, and in many cases the same
persons are responsible for ISBN and ISMN.
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....
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 still of
Dr. Hartmut Walravens, chair
Dr. Joachim Jaenecke, vice chair
Dr. Bettina von Seyfried, treasurer.
Contacts and Web Address
http://ismn-international.org
email: ismn@ismn-international.org
Hartmut Walravens
Chair, Inernational ISMN Agency