"What is the ISTC?

The International Standard Text Work Code (ISTC) is a numbering system developed to enable the unique identification of textual works.

Why does the ISTC matter?

As the text supply chain becomes increasingly digital, there is a growing need to uniquely identify the text of a work before it becomes a manifestation, regardless of the editions or formats which it might ultimately take. This way the creators of text works, and their authorized representatives, can more effectively manage information about the work throughout the supply chain and across industry databases and in business transactions.

As a unique identifier, the ISTC is useful in a wide range of computerized applications; some of its possible uses include tracking usage of textual works; verification of title registrations for anti-piracy purposes; management of rights information."

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ISTC will link various versions of texts (print, digital, large print), but it will not link all related items (so it does not solve the FRBR linking problem completely). At the DLF session "New Developments in Bibliographic Services: A Report from Bowker" Angela D'Agastino noted that it would not link translations or audio books. It is unclear whether it would link editions.

 

"The Indiana University Veriations2 and Variations3 projects use a work-based metadata model for discovery of musical sound recordings, scanned score images, and encoded score notation files. This model has been described as ³FRBR-like² and is mentioned in various discussions of FRBR-based systems, but it is not technically a FRBR implementation.

As the project team investigates long-term sustainability issues for the Variations3 software, we have begun thinking about what a truly FRBR-ized version of the metadata model would look like, and if changing to this type of model would make our system more sustainable and interoperable. As a first step towards answering these questions, members of the Variations3 project team have released a report outlining the potential application of FRBR to a system designed to deliver musical content in a library environment."