International ISTC Agency Announces Four New Registration Agency Appointments

LONDON, Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The International ISTC Agency, the official Registration Authority for the International Standard Text Code (ISTC), is pleased to announce its appointment of four new official registration agencies (ISTC-RAs).  All will start operating in early 2011.

In Australasia, two ISTC-RAs have been appointed - Thorpe-Bowker, based in Australia and Nielsen Book Asia Pacific (NBAP), based in New Zealand. Thorpe Bowker is the existing ISBN agency for Australia, and the Standard Address Number (SAN) agency for both Australia and New Zealand. It has been in operation from 1 January 2011. NBAP intends to provide an ISTC registration service primarily for book publishers, of texts covering any subject matter in either English or Maori, based in Australia or New Zealand and commenced at the beginning of February 2011.

There are also two new ISTC-RAs in Europe – Boekenbank in Belgium and the Federation of Intellectual Property Rights (FIPR) in Russia. Boekenbank, which has one of the most comprehensive and accurate online title databases of books that are either published or distributed in Flanders aims to establish itself as the ISTC agency for the Dutch language book market. It will start operation in April 2011. FIPR has been set up by the Russian Reproduction Rights Organisation (Copyrus) and the Russian State Library. It will register all kinds of text originating in the Russian Federation in a variety of languages and commenced operations in January 2011.

The ISTC is an approved ISO standard (ISO 21047), providing a means of uniquely identifying textual works in information systems. It facilitates the enhancement of discovery tools, enabling them to identify and group together publications of the same textual content. The ISTC also facilitates exchange of information about such works between publishers, authors and authors associations, collective management organizations, libraries, search engines and others on an international level. More information regarding the ISTC standard is available at www.ISTC-international.org, the official web site of the International ISTC Agency.

"These appointments mean that we now have 8 ISTC-RAs in operation and we cover many of the major markets – US, UK and Russia as well as the French, German and Dutch speaking language areas," says Julian Sowa, Chairman of the International ISTC Agency. "It is excellent news that we have expanded further in Europe and broken new ground in Australasia. 2011 will be the year when ISTC really takes off and we look forward to a record number of registrations."

Publishers, authors, rights-holders and others interested in the ISTC are encouraged to participate with their local ISTC registration agency to exchange required meta-data about their works and groupings of works that are intended for ISTC assignment. Registration of textual works on the central ISTC database is in many cases entirely free of charge. General information about the ISTC, including a list of agency contacts, can be accessed at www.ISTC-international.org.

The International ISTC Agency encourages organisations wishing to become an ISTC Registration Agency to contact the International ISTC via: James Boyd, Communication and Product Development, IFRRO at +32 2 551 08 97 or [email protected].

About The International ISTC Agency

Formed in 2008, The International ISTC Agency is a not-for-profit company appointed by the International Standards Organisation ISO as global authority responsible for the promotion, coordination and supervision of ISO 21047 - International Standard Text Code (ISTC) standard and system.

The International ISTC Agency Ltd

Incorporated in England and Wales

Company Number 06674385

Registered Office: Care of 19 Cavendish Square, London W1A 2AW

SOURCE The International ISTC Agency