ISO 2146:2010 establishes the rules for registries operating in a network environment to provide the information about collections, parties, activities and services needed by libraries and related organizations to manage their collections and deliver information and documentation services across a range of applications and domains.

ISO 2146:2010 presents a data element directory that may be used as a framework for collecting the appropriate data and sharing it with other registry services, providing access to registry data through standard protocols whenever it is needed as part of an automated business workflow, publishing registries in electronic or print form and archiving registry data when the data exists only in electronic form.

ISO 2146:2010 is applicable to national registries published in bi- or multilingual countries and national and regional registries intended for international use.

The field of application includes but is not limited to

collection management systems and digital repositories,

discovery services, including catalogues and indexes, federated metadata repositories and metasearch portals,

delivery services, including persistent identifier management and resolution, access management and interlending services,

reference services including reference management systems and virtual reference services, and

the registry services themselves, of all types, needed to support the above applications.