ISO 25964

ISO 25964
Title	ISO 25964
Status	Published
Version	2011/2013/2017
Organization	International Organization for Standardization
Domain	Information management; Library of Congress; British Library

ISO 25964

ISO 25964 is an international standard for thesauri and interoperable controlled vocabularies developed by the International Organization for Standardization technical committee in information and documentation contexts. It provides guidelines for the design, management, publication and exchange of thesauri used by organizations such as the Library of Congress, British Library, National Library of Medicine and multinational corporations like Siemens, IBM, and Google. The standard supports interoperability among systems used by institutions including the European Union, UNESCO, and national archives such as the National Archives (United Kingdom).

Overview

ISO 25964 defines models and data elements for thesauri to improve retrieval in systems deployed at venues like the British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, and major research centers such as MIT, Stanford University, Harvard University, and Oxford University. It aligns with cataloguing practices from bodies like the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and standards maintained by the National Information Standards Organization and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. It addresses relationships among terms used by large-scale services such as WorldCat, JSTOR, PubMed, and commercial platforms like Elsevier and Springer Nature.

Scope and Purpose

The scope covers thesaurus construction, maintenance, and exchange to support discovery in systems used by institutions including the European Central Bank, World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, and cultural organizations such as the Guggenheim Museum and Tate Modern. Its purpose is to ensure consistent indexing across repositories like the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, and Biblioteca Nacional de España, and to facilitate linking with taxonomies and ontologies used in projects with partners like W3C, LinkedIn, and the BBC.

Structure of the Standard

ISO 25964 is published in parts that specify the core data model, implementation syntax, and guidelines for maintenance—paralleling formats endorsed by the International Council on Archives and standards referenced by the European Commission for data interoperability. The structure supports mapping between thesauri and other vocabularies used by entities such as Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic, Clarivate, and institutional repositories at Yale University and Columbia University.

Thesaurus Interoperability and Mapping

The standard details mechanisms for mapping and linking controlled vocabularies to enable integration with classification schemes like the Dewey Decimal Classification, Library of Congress Classification, and subject heading systems such as LCSH and MeSH. It guides crosswalks with ontologies employed by projects at CERN, NASA, European Space Agency, and research infrastructures such as CERN Open Data and ELIXIR. Recommended practices facilitate interoperability with metadata schemas from OCLC, CrossRef, DataCite, and national bibliographic agencies like the National Diet Library.

Implementation and Best Practices

Implementers include university libraries at University of California, Berkeley, corporate knowledge management teams at Microsoft, and cultural heritage institutions like the Vatican Library. Best practices cover editorial workflows used by cataloguers trained in programs at University College London, SILS at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and professional organizations such as the American Library Association and Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. The standard works alongside protocols and technologies promoted by W3C and software vendors including Ex Libris, Verint, and open-source projects like Django and Apache Solr.

History and Development

Development involved experts and national bodies including the British Standards Institution, AFNOR, DIN, ANSI, and contributors from research institutions such as Fraunhofer Society, CSIRO, and CNRS. Its evolution reflects dialogues influenced by earlier standards from the International Council of Scientific and Technical Information and initiatives at events like the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications and the IFLA World Library and Information Congress.

Adoption and Impact

Adoption spans national libraries including the Library and Archives Canada, corporate archives at Procter & Gamble, knowledge bases at Meta Platforms, and large-scale digital initiatives such as Europeana and the Digital Public Library of America. The impact is seen in improved cross-repository discovery in infrastructures supported by JISC, interoperability projects funded by the European Research Council, and harmonization efforts led by organizations like UNESCO and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

Category:Information standards