ISNI | Linked Data
Linked Data
Responding to interest evident in the library community and beyond, ISNI is in the process of making available key ISNI metadata in several Linked Data formats. The metadata covers both person- and organization- or group-related ISNI identifiers and consists of a subset of the information describing each ISNI formally assigned in the ISNI database.
The Linked Data itself is available in both RDF/XML and JSON-LD formats. The subset of data elements included can be viewed in the tables below. The data itself is provided under a CC0 licence.
The ISNI Linked Data rollout will take place in two phases. In Phase 1, operational now, the data itself has been made publicly available for download and review via a number of mechanisms detailed below.
In Phase 2, comprehensive content negotiation facilities will be added, allowing external systems to interrogate and link to the Linked Data resource in a fully automated fashion.
Accessing the data
One download per serialization (RDF/XML, JSON-LD) available from the
ISNI Web Search Interface
One download per serialization (RDF/XML, JSON-LD) available from the
ISNI SRU API
Downloadable data dumps (RDF/XML, JSON-LD)
2 datasets: https://isni.org/isni/data-person and https://isni.org/isni/data-organization
available at:
and
and
described at:
person:
RDF/XML
JSON-LD
and
HTML
organization or group:
RDF/XML
JSON-LD
and
HTML
refreshed every 6 months
The data is released under a
Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
There is currently no SPARQL endpoint.
URI patterns
The dataset uses URIs of the form:
For entities, i.e. persons and organizations or groups: https://isni.org/isni/{ISNI} where ISNI is the 16 digit identifier. For example,
For metadata terms in the
ISNI ontology
, https://isni.org/ontology#{term}. For example, https://isni.org/ontology#hasDeprecatedISNI
Data model
Person
Person entity table
RDF property
Expected value/range
Definition
Cardinality
rdfs:label
Literal
16 digit ISNI presented as stated in the ISNI ISO standard, e.g. ISNI 0000 0000 8045 6315
rdf:type
Class
Always schema:Person
schema:alternateName
Literal
Name of the public identity
1..*
schema:birthDate
Literal
Year of birth of the public identity
0..1
schema:deathDate
Literal
Year of death of the public identity
0..1
schema:identifier
Class
Always schema:PropertyValue
isni:hasDeprecatedISNI
Literal
Deprecated ISNI; 16 digits with no space
0..*
owl:sameAs
Class
Entity identified by a URI and modelled as a real world object
0..*
madsrdf:isIdentifiedByAuthority
Class
Entity identified by a URI and modelled as an authority/skos:Concept
0..*
dcterms:source
Class
Entity identified by a non machine actionable URI, i.e. a URL
0..*
Organization or Group
Organization or group entity table
RDF property
Expected value/range
Definition
Cardinality
rdfs:label
Literal
16 digit ISNI presented as stated in the ISNI ISO standard, e.g. ISNI 0000 0001 2353 1945
rdf:type
Class
Always schema:Organization
schema:alternateName
Literal
Name of the public identity
1..*
schema:identifier
Class
Always schema:PropertyValue
isni:hasDeprecatedISNI
Literal
Deprecated ISNI; 16 digits with no space
0..*
owl:sameAs
Class
Entity identified by a URI and modelled as a real world object
0..*
madsrdf:isIdentifiedByAuthority
Class
Entity identified by a URI and modelled as an authority/skos:Concept
0..*
dcterms:source
Class
Entity identified by a non machine actionable URI, i.e. a URL
0..*
Property Value
Always a blank node
Property value table
RDF property
Expected value/range
Definition
Cardinality
rdf:type
Class
schema:PropertyValue
schema:propertyID
Class
Always the Wikidata identifier for the ISNI schema, i.e. http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q423048
schema:value
Literal
16 digit ISNI – no blank spaces
Expressing deprecation
The model uses the isni specific property isni:hasDeprecatedISNI , for example:
>  isni:hasDeprecatedISNI "000000012407618X" .
where ISNI 0000 0001 2407 618X is is the deprecated ISNI for the entity with the assigned ISNI 0000 0001 2139 4035
In addition to the isni:hasDeprecatedISNI property, the following construct is also used:
owl:deprecated  "true”^^xsd:Boolean" ;
rdfs:comment    "this identifier is deprecated. See rdfs:seeAlso link for new identifier" ;
rdfs:seeAlso        <
> .
Linking to external resources
The model uses three different properties to establish relationships with external resources:
owl:sameAs if the external resource has been modelled as a real world object (RWO). For example, Wikidata resources identified by URIs with the pattern http://www.wikidata.org/entity/{ID}
madsrdf:isIdentifiedByAuthority if the external resource has been modelled as an Authority, i.e. a document about a Thing rather than the Thing itself. For example, Library of Congress resources identified by URIs with the pattern http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/{ID} or data.bnf.fr resources identified by URIs with the pattern http://data.bnf.fr/{ID}
dcterms:source if the URI is a URL, i.e. points to a webpage with no machine actionable data.
The dataset currently includes links to:
LC/NACO
data.bnf.fr
wikidata
musicbrainz
National Library of Korea
and
National Assembly Library of Korea
resources, where they exist in the ISNI database.
Feedback or questions on ISNI's Linked Data plans are very welcome; please let us have any responses via
[email protected]