KANTO – National Agent Data is a data repository containing the standard name forms of agents, who are the authors or subjects of materials published in Finland. These name forms are generated in connection with creating descriptions for the National Bibliography. In addition to the descriptions of persons and organisations related to publications produced in Finland, Kanto contains some data on foreign persons and organisations. Kanto is an online version of the Asteri name database. |
An agent refers to a person or organisation related to published scientific or artistic material, or manuscript or archive material, for example. Person means a real person or an identity created by a real person (alone or together with one or more other persons). Organisation refers to an organisation or group of individuals, who are known by a specific name and act or may act as a single entity. An agent may be, for example, a writer, composer, musical group or publisher. It may also be a person or organisation that is the subject of a book, such as a royal person, political activist, wartime battalion or local company.
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The statutory duties of the National Library include the storage, collection and making available of information related to its materials and collections. The description of agents in the name database maintained by the National Library is related to the Finnish National Bibliography; in other words, the descriptions usually concern persons and organisations, that are the authors or the subject of materials published in Finland. Foreign agents are described if it is necessary for data search purposes.
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When describing agents, libraries comply with the following international standards and guidelines, for example:
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Descriptions of agents related to materials are created to facilitate data search and to ensure the quality of the data contained in libraries’ databases. The description of agents also facilitates the work of those who describe published material.
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The Asteri name database maintained by the National Library contains metadata on nearly 155,000 people and around 49,500 organisations (July 2021). Toimijoita kuvaillaan Kansalliskirjaston ylläpitämään nimitietokantaan kansallisbibliografian näkökulmasta eli kuvailua yleensä tehdään henkilöistä ja yhteisöistä, jotka ovat Suomessa julkaistuissa aineistoissa tekijöinä tai kohteena. |
When describing agents related to the National Library’s National Collection, it is considered necessary to include the following information:
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The general source of information is mainly the material to be included and described in the National Collection. In addition to this material, the sources of information include Finnish reference books, registers, online dictionaries and encyclopaedias, authors’ own websites, publishers’ websites, newspapers, etc. Sometimes information is received from the creators themselves. The sources of information used to describe agents are public. |
The National Library aims to make the data it produces open whenever possible.
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The language of agent descriptions is Finnish, but texts and titles in the Kanto view in Finto have been translated into English. The user interface language can be changed from the menu in the upper right corner of the Finto.fi service (suomi/på svenska/in English). |
If you have any questions or clarifications, or you want to give feedback, please contact us: toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi. |
We value your privacy and your right to protect your personal data. Everyone has the right to know what data has been stored about them and how it is processed. The data protection statement below specifies, among other things, what kind of personal data is processed in the agent descriptions, why and on what basis. If you have any questions related to the processing of data, please contact us at: toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi.
The controller, i.e., the party responsible for processing your data, is the National Library of Finland. The controller’s contact person is Nina Hyvönen. Our contact details: National Library of Finland Service address (requests for supplementing and correcting personal data): toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi Contact details of the Data Protection Officer: tietosuoja @ helsinki.fi |
We process the following personal data in the Library’s name database:
We do not process people’s personal identification numbers or contact information. |
Your personal data is needed for the National Library’s name database for the following purposes, for example:
Personal data is collected and stored in order to facilitate data retrieval, ensure the quality of library databases and preserve cultural heritage. The management of collections requires that both the agents related to and results of creative work can be identified and distinguished, and that information concerning them can be preserved as comprehensively and intelligibly as possible for future generations. |
The processing of personal data in Kanto is based, above all, on Article 6 of the EU Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) and the following paragraph of Section 4 of the Data Protection Act (1050/2018):
Main legislative acts:
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The data stored in the Asteri Name Database (and published in Kanto) are maintained by the National Library’s agent metadata experts. |
Kansalliskirjaston lisäksi Asterin tiedontoimittajina toimii muutama yliopistokirjasto, joka ylläpitää omaan yliopistoonsa liittyvien väitöskirjatekijöiden tietoja. Alla löydät linkkejä Asterin tiedontuottajina toimivien yliopistojen sivuille, joissa kerrotaan tarkemmin henkilötietojen käsittelyn periaatteista:
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Tietoja aineistoon liittyvistä henkilöistä on kerätty kirjastossa useiden vuosikymmenten ajan. Jokaisen rekisteröidyn informointi ja suostumuksen pyytäminen jälkikäteen vaatisi kohtuuttoman paljon työtä verrattuna asian laatuun ja henkilötietojen käsittelyyn liittyviin riskeihin. |
The personal data in the register is stored in connection with describing materials. The data is mainly derived from described materials. Lifetime data is collected from published sources, such as registers or from the persons themselves. |
The data used to unambiguously identify agents is stored permanently. Requests for supplementing and correcting personal data can be emailed to the Agent Metadata Service at toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi. |
The description data contained in the National Library’s name database is available in Kanto in the Finto service. |
Right to verify and rectify personal data You have the right to know, whether the National Library processes personal data related to you. In addition, you have the right to know, what personal data related to you are processed. Requests for supplementing and correcting personal data can be emailed to the Agent Metadata Service at toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi. Individual details concerning a person may be modified at the person’s request. However, such modifications must be made in a way that the principles of unambiguous identification are also fulfilled with the information remaining in the name database. |
To enable the unambiguous identification of agents also in the future, the following information, if known, is defined as mandatory in the agent descriptions:
Descriptions are made with the help of the publications at hand or using various reference books, registers or online sources of information. The reliability of the sources of information is always assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is important to store all the information known at the time of the description so that the person can also be identified later, after 50 years, for example. |
A name form that is unambiguous at the moment of description may become ambiguous at a later point in time. It may be that in the future, the name alone will not suffice for identification, and such a situation is anticipated with the help of the year of birth information. |
The professional terms used in the description of agents are extracted from the Metadata thesaurus (Metatietosanasto), while the industry terms are extracted from the YSO-ontology. |
Identifiers related to agents play an important role in the description. |
Agent data is reviewed from time to time. In most cases, data is reviewed when a new publication is to be described. Data are also updated upon request. |
If any data in Kanto is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, please contact us at toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi. |
Sometimes the publications of persons with the same name are confused with one another. |
Sometimes the publications of persons with the same name are confused with one another. |
The data on the materials related to an author is retrieved from the National Bibliography, and, therefore, the list of materials in Kanto may appear to be incomplete. In addition, the list of materials in Kanto does not include articles. |
If you would like to supplement your data with an ORCID, please contact us at toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi. |
If you did not find an answer to your question on this page, please contact us at toimijakuvailu-posti @ helsinki.fi.