The 34th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centers Held in National Library of China

Report (with photos) of the ISSN Directors' meeting in Beijing at the NLC site:

The 34th Meeting of Directors of ISSN National Centers was held in National Library of China during September 14th to September 18th of 2009 shortly after the library celebrated its centennial birthday on September 9th. Over 30 delegates from 25 countries attended this meeting, during which directors of ISSN national centers and library professionals around the world had many in-depth discussions, view exchanges and experience sharing. Among issues on the agenda, the implementation of ISSN-L and ISSN assignment policy such as Criteria for the Selection of ISSNable Integrating e-resources and ISSN projects PEPRS received the highest concern.

ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is an eight-digit number which identifies periodical publications, including electronic serials. The ISSN database, ISSN Registry, is the most comprehensive and authoritative source for the identification of serial publications world-wide. The number of records in the ISSN Register totaled 1,450,268 (including current and dead) by August, 2009.

ISSN China Centre was established in National Library of China in the year 1985. Through years of efforts, the number of serial records in CNMARC format in the ISSN China Centre database totaled 13,100 by June, 2009, which covered almost all records for periodicals officially published in mainland China and some bibliographic records for almanacs.

ISSN China Centre has signed agreement concerning access to ISSN China Centre records with the world-renowned information service provider ProQuest, which further promoted the application of bibliographic records of Chinese serials to an international level.

ISSN has been applied to many fields. ISSN is used in libraries for identifying titles, ordering and checking in serials, and claiming missing issues. ISSN simplifies interlibrary loan and cooperative cataloging workflows. Employed as a standard numeric identification code, ISSN can be used in computers for updating and linking files, for retrieving and transmitting data. ISSN also provides a useful and economical method of communication between publishers and suppliers, making trade distribution systems faster and more efficient. ISSN results in accurate citing of serials by scholars, researchers, abstracters, and librarians.

The ISSN Directors' Meetings are technical meetings, held on annual basis, which provide an opportunity for members of each ISSN national centers and the International Center to discuss issues related to the assignment and management of ISSNs, learn of new developments and harmonize the practices of the various ISSN national centers. The meetings are held in a different country each year since 1974, hosted by one of the ISSN national centers. It is the first time for ISSN China Centre to host the meeting after the ISSN national centers of the U.S., France and Switzerland, etc. as hosting organizations.

Recently, new types of resources such as continuing electronic resources are constantly emerging as the rapid development of digital technologies, which poses new challenges to ISSN assignment and management in many countries. This meeting will facilitate exchange and cooperation between ISSN China Centre and other ISSN centers, keep ISSN China Centre informed of the latest development of ISSN, which in return, will promote the ISSN assignment and management in China.

Original URLs:

English version: http://www.nlc.gov.cn/en/news/nlcnews_2009092101.htm

Chinese version: http://www.nlc.gov.cn/syzt/2009/0921/article_374.htm