Ms Françoise Pellé - Director
1. ISSN : The Network and The Register as at May 15, 2002
2. Issues of Relevance to CDNL
a) Harmonization of cataloguing rules (AACR, ISBD and ISSN)
The harmonization of cataloguing rules between the AACR, ISBD and ISSN communities was successfully carried out, thanks to the efforts of the three communities interested in this work. The main changes regard the definitions, the rules for the creation of new records and the title transcription rules. A new version of the ISSN Manual should be published by the end of 2002. A majority of ISSN National Centres are hosted by National Libraries. In this respect, the harmonisation of cataloguing rules represents an important improvement as it will enable a wider re-use of records.
b) Formats
In the framework of the implementation of a completely new computer system at the ISSN International Centre, the ISSN network is working towards the revision of its bibliographic format. Important orientations were adopted regarding the bibliographic formats which should be accepted by the new system, and provided to the users of the ISSN Register : both UNIMARC and MARC21 should be accepted and provided. This should facilitate the data exchange between the ISSN National Centres and the ISSN Register.
The implementation of the new system is planned for 2003-2004.
c) Persistent Identification
More and more electronic resources are assigned ISSNs. Thanks to the URN implementation carried out at the ISSN International Centre, the ISSN can be used as a persistent name on the Internet (at the title level).
At the article level, an experiment was successfully carried out last year within the framework of the European project DIEPER. This experiment demonstrates that the ISSN resolution system can be used as an intermediary tool for the re-direction of SICI-based URNs. The principle relies on the use of SICIs for the identification and retrieval of electronic articles. As SICIs are based on ISSN, SICI-based URNs are sent to the ISSN resolver, which parses the SICI and identifies thee adequate final resolution service, the article itself being provided to the user by the adequate server within the DIEPER architecture. By applying accepted standards this architecture is devised to be non-proprietary and open to be used by other systems.
3 Strategy
a) Identification and Bibliographic Control
The harmonisation of cataloguing rules should enable the National Libraries hosting an ISSN National Centre to save resources in the cataloguing process. Therefore, the identification of a larger number of continuing resources should be possible, and more continuing resources should be assigned an ISSN.
b) Persistent Identification on the Internet
An important challenge regards the role National Libraries will take in the information infrastructure. In this respect, the assignment of persistent identifiers such as the ISSN to the largest number of electronic resources should comfort their place, and be part of their strategy.
c) Broadening of the ISSN Network
Some countries still do not have a National ISSN Centre. The National Libraries of these countries are strongly encouraged to host the ISSN National Centre and should not hesitate to contact the ISSN International Centre (tel: (33) 1 44 88 22 20, fax (33) 1 40 26 32 43, email issnic@issn.org).
Ms Françoise
Pelle Directeur
| ADDRESS: | |
| ISSN International Centre | Tel: +33 1 44 88 22 20 |
| 20 rue Bachaumont | Fax: +33 1 40 26 32 43 |
| 75002 Paris | |
| FRANCE | |
| Email: pelle@issn.org | WWW: http://www.issn.org |