Journal supply chain support provider Ringgold Inc has contracted with the ISNI International Agency to be the first ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) Registration Agency for institutional identification.
Ringgold will incorporate ISNIs into its Identify database of institutional identifiers and distribute these ISNIs without charge to Ringgold's Identify clients. For Ringgold's clients, this will immediately affect over 300,000 institutions worldwide.
Building on several years of experience in providing institutional identification, Ringgold will be working with ISNI on the technical requirements for the addition of ISNI Numbers to Ringgold's Identify database. It is anticipated that all Ringgold institutional records will have an ISNI attached to them in the latter part of 2012. During the first year of operation, clients using Ringgold's standard Identify services will receive ISNI Numbers without additional charge, to encourage them to incorporate ISNIs into their workflows and services.
Organisations acquiring just ISNIs without Ringgold's other services will be charged on a sliding scale based on the quantity of ISNIs required.
In addition, Ringgold's free look-up service will display ISNI Numbers as well as Ringgold ID Numbers. The free look-up service is available at www.openidentify.com which, after registration, enables users to search for and obtain an institutional identification number as well as basic location information and the Ringgold Standard Name for an institution.
ISNI has been designed as a bridge identifier between identification methods across the media industry. It provides a unique identification number for any public party, such as authors, fictional characters, musicians, rights holders, publishers, and institutions. Since 2005, Ringgold has been providing institutional identification services to publishers and intermediaries through its Auditing services and Identify database.
More than 60 publishers currently use Ringgold's databases and its related services to organise their customer data, prepare quotations for licenses and deals, and for market penetration and gap analyses.
