ISOstandardid

ISOstandardid is a term used in information management to refer to a persistent identifier assigned to ISO standards to support stable referencing in catalogs, databases, and digital repositories. It is not an official ISO designation; rather, it is a convention adopted by libraries, standards portals, and enterprise data systems to enable machine-actionable linking independent of human-readable labels.

The main purpose of an ISOstandardid is to provide a unique, durable reference for a standard across versions and editions, and to support metadata interoperability, automated retrieval, cross-linking, and data exchange between systems such as library catalogs, procurement platforms, and compliance management tools. By decoupling the identifier from the human description, organizations can maintain stable links even as titles or scope notes evolve.

Structure and examples of ISOstandardid vary by organization since it is not governed by ISO itself. Common approaches include opaque identifiers stored in a dedicated field, or URI/URN forms intended to be globally resolvable. Examples might include a URI form such as urn:iso:std:9001:2015 or a prefixed token like ISO9001:2015 within a database. The essential characteristics are global uniqueness, machine readability, and persistence across revisions.

Relation to official ISO numbering: official ISO references use the standard number and year (for example, ISO 9001:2015), which remains the human-readable label. ISOstandardid complements this by providing a durable, system-level reference that persists beyond metadata schema changes or title updates.

Governance and limitations: because ISOstandardid is not an official ISO construct, its maintenance is governed by the adopting organization. Potential issues include fragmentation across systems, version handling challenges, and the need for policies to preserve identifiers over time. See also persistent identifiers, URN, DOI, ISO 9001.