ISMN

Service description

An ISMN identifies sheet music intended for public use. The Finnish national ISBN Agency is also responsible for handing out ISMNs in Finland. The Agency maintains a national publisher register and provides information about Finnish publishers for national and international use.

Identifiers as a part of metadata serve the publishing industry and library sector in their entirety and support identification, processing and availability of publications. The identifiers are used, for example, in publishing industry's ordering and distribution systems to speed up the recognition of publications as well as international and domestic joint catalogues, bibliographies, library lending systems and information retrieval.

Each piece of published sheet music, its publication format and edition containing changes are rewarded a separate ISMN .This promotes the identification of publications in the publishing industry's distribution chain and ensures that customers get the desired publication at their disposal. The publication format may be a printed publication or an audiovisual or electronic recording.