The format of a BSIP iconographic reference is:

bsip<ref no>[.​<image-ref>][-{M|I|B|IA|IP|BA|BP}<object no>]

The format of a BSIP archaeological reference is:

bsip-archaeo<ref no>[.​<image-ref>][-{I|B|IA|IP|BA|BP}<object no>]

The format of a BSIP extant object reference is:

bsip-extant<ref no>[.​<image-ref>][-{I|B|IA|IP|BA|BP}<object no>]

Where:

[] denotes optional an part
{} denotes one of the groups of characters
| separates the character groups in the list {}
<> denotes a value

The characters []{}<>| do not form part of the reference and are present here only to describe the format.

<ref no> is the BSIP reference number of the source in the database.

[-{M|I|B|IP|IA|BA|BP}<object-no>] is an optional Research Target specifier. It consists of one of  M = Musician, I = Instrument, B = Bow, IA = Instrument Accessory, IP = Instrument Part, BA = Bow Accessory or BP = Bow Part, followed by the number for that type of research target within the source.

[.<image-ref>] is an optional image specifier. The image-ref is the BSIP reference of the image within the source. Images start numbering from 1 and are assigned sequentially.

NOTE: The bsip or bsip-archaeo, or bsip-extant database identifier should always be present in a BSIP reference.

Leading Zeros

BSIP References can be specified using leading zeros. If leading zeros are used we recommend padding so the numeric part contains 6 digits. Thus bsip734 may also be expressed as bsip000734. The use of padding with leadng zeros has advantages when used in IT systems, and results in two benefits; firstly the  width of the reference is constant, and secondly sorting based on the BSIP reference now preserves BSIP reference order.

Examples

The most common usage is a simple reference to a specific source. These are simply 'bsip' or 'bsip-archaeo' followed by a number. This is the minimum needed to identify a given source. The references may be expanded in order to specify particular research targets, and/or specific images.

• bsip734 = The iconographic source whose  BSIP reference ID is 734.

• bsip734.1 = Image 1 of iconographic source 734.

• bsip734-M2 = Musician 2 of iconographic source 734.

• bsip734.1-B1 = Bow 1, on Image 1 of iconographic source 734.

• bsip-archaeo2 = The archaelogicai source whose BSIP reference ID is 2.

• bsip-extant1 = The extant object source whose BSIP reference ID is 1.