Agent Metadata Service

The Agent Metadata Service provides instructions for the description of persons, families and corporate bodies and their use in the description of resources. 

Service description

The Agent Metadata Service provides instructions for the description of persons, families and corporate bodies and their use in the description of resources. This service is provided primarily to libraries participating in the coproduction of agent metadata. The forthcoming Agent Metadata Service of the National Digital Library will expand the service to include archives and museums.

The Agent Metadata Service supports the description of agents relevant to Finnish materials and will be expanded to supervise the description of international agents found in publications produced in Finland. The aim is to facilitate information retrieval by harmonising the metadata used for persons, families and corporate bodies. The purpose of the service is to help libraries, archives and museums create consistent agent metadata e.g. by forming a cooperation network between libraries.

The Agent Metadata Service offers guidance on resource description and advice to information seekers and others who would benefit from such information. The service includes instructions on using name identifiers (such as ISNI).

The National Library has been surveying cooperation opportunities for agent metadata production since 2015. The purpose is to bring together partners representing university and legal deposit libraries. Interested libraries are invited to contact the National Library’s Agent Metadata Service at [email protected].

Joining the service

Joining the service requires a contract
Free of charge

Part of a service package