The ISNI International Agency, which provides tools to identify millions of contributors of creative works and those active in their distribution, has announced that Bowker, the ISBN services company, has rejoined the community as an ISNI Registration Agency. Bowker’s re-engagement also coincides with the Book Industry Study Group’s efforts to establish a nationwide ISNI workflow in the United States.
The announcement noted that, until Bowker’s new commitment to ISNI, the U.S. had lacked a dedicated ISNI Registration Agency. Bowker’s return, the announcement continued, “marks a pivotal milestone for the ISNI standard and global name identification,” to empower stakeholders across the book industry and beyond through rights management and improvements to marketability and discoverability.
“Rejoining ISNI at this crucial time allows us to support the publishing community—from authors and agents to publishers and booksellers—with advanced identification solutions,” Beat Barblan, general manager at Bowker, said in a statement. “We are excited to once again contribute to ISNI’s growth and help streamline the supply chain with greater precision and efficiency.”
As part of its ISNI role, Bowker is developing an online ISNI assignment portal, which is set to launch later this year. The platform will offer assignment services to individuals and organizations across the book industry and broader creative sectors worldwide. The new portal is one way Bowker hopes to help stakeholders to ensure accurate attribution across the supply chain and minimize confusion caused by name ambiguity.
Bowker had been a founding member of the ISNI International Agency in 2010, but parted ways with the agency because of conflicts with ProQuest, its former corporate parent. Now separate from ProQuest, Bowker executives felt that the time was right to rejoin.
“We’re delighted to be welcoming Bowker back into the fold,” said Tim Devenport executive director of ISNI-IA, in a statement. “As a founding member, Bowker played an instrumental role in shaping the ISNI standard, and their expertise will be invaluable as we continue expanding ISNI’s reach and impact.”