# /programs/ourwork/renovating/leveragevocab/server.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/renovating/leveragevocab/server.htm

# Prototype a "Publisher Name Server" Determining the pedigree of works can be severely hampered as publishers over time change names, merge with others, or split. Collection management and analysis can be skewed by inadvertently excluding the works published by a given publisher under variant names. The Publisher Name Server prototype maps variant publisher names to a preferred form and resolves ISBN prefixes to publisher name. It also compiles all known information regarding relationships among publishers: acquisitions, imprints, subsidiaries, mergers, joint ventures, etc. The current Publisher Name database (as of April 2008) contains information on more than 1,650 publishers and imprints including: the top 25 publishers (by ISBN prefix) in WorldCat from the United States; the top 20 publishers from the United Kingdom; the top 10 publishers from Canada, Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, China, the Russian Federation, Spain, Finland, Australia, Taiwan, and New Zealand; the top 10 university presses; any publisher involved in a merger or acquisition since 2001. The imprints from this set of top publishers represent roughly 7 million WorldCat records. Of the single preferred publisher name forms identified through programmatic datamining and research, 93% correspond to the established form in the LC/NACO Name Authority File, Books in Print, or the International ISBN Registry. The variant and former names were data mined from 53,000 imprint statements in WorldCat records. Public access to the database is yet to be determined. Project team: Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Lead Timothy Dickey Jeremy Browning |
For more information Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D. Consulting Research Scientist lynn_connaway@oclc.org