2017-08-04 First group Q&A (WebEx)

In the Document, How to use the ISNI web portal, under the section, Editing a record, it states that “If (your institution (XXXX)) is not already a source on the record, it must be added before any further editing of the record.” Does each participating institution in the Pilot Project a have unique code (e.g., UCLA); and if so, where is it located? Or do we all use the same code (e.g., PCC)?

In the ISNI database we discovered erroneous data that had been harvested in VIAF from an OCLC bib record (891127112): in this instance, a work is incorrectly attributed to an established identity (both authors share the same personal name). Aside from placing a note in the appropriate space for QT to review, is there anything else we should do? How can we prevent this error from recurring? How far back in the harvesting sequence do we have to go (ISNI ßVIAF ß OCLC)? Is this issue something to be explored when we begin developing policies and guidelines?

Do ISNI searches cover only persons and organizations? What about works (as does VIAF)?

1. There is a field for type of content (I don’t remember the name exactly).  It is not controlled as far as I can tell. You get mixed messages in the documentation as to whether you should use it or not (one says most have decided not to use it, the other seems to be saying that they are using it).

2. There is a field for creator with a controlled list of roles. There is a field for contributor with no roles. Contributor seems to say that it should be used for performers, but actors and musicians are listed in the creator field. So it's not clear what we should do with actors. It seems more useful to go with the field that has the roles.

3. There doesn't seem to be a year associated with the related work (records generated from NARs have them, though, from the 670 field).  When you don't have birth and death dates, it can be useful to have that year as it's often a clue to when the persons years of activity are (though less useful with films, though, since we've used the date of publication when the film itself may be much older, similarly with reprints).

I notice that data pulled from LCNAF via VIAF puts the work's date after the title, presumably pulled from 670 $a that way. If creating an ISNI from scratch, could you do that?

4. I tried to create an ISNI for a guy with no surname.  He uses one name, Mfumu.  I found his fuller name online which I used to create variant names.  But, surname is mandatory in the Name and Name Variant fields.  So I moved Mfumu to the Surname field and clicked on Save Changes which kicked me back to the login page. After loggin in again, I see that a record for Mfumu has indeed been created, yay.

5. I also got kicked back to the login page after Save Changes on a record I created, and when I logged in, the record was indeed saved (phew).

6. It didn't happen on the other records I created. I wondered if it happens when it takes a long time to create the record. When it happened to me I had been consulting documents as I went, and it took quite a while. Or maybe it just happens randomly?

7. Are we expected to look up the related org. or person in ISNI to find that number? Documentation says Pica production number of the related person/org. in the ISNI database, if known.

8. Could you please confirm that or Creation class we should be now using 2 letter codes from MARC 21 leader/06 and leader/07 (http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bdleader.html).

9. I have a person who is both an actor and singer but in the work I cite he is only an actor.  Do I have to use only "actor" as a role and not use singer since he is not associated with the work in that capacity? Is that field associated only with the cited work?  I found out about his singing while doing research for the NAR, where I was ok with adding both professions.

10. In the existing records for PNs, I saw names of publishers but when I was creating a new ISNI entry, I did not see a place to enter the publisher in a template (I used the internet interface).