Since 5th January 2018, the ISSN International Centre has been offering a new ISSN portal interface and a new ISSN Extranet for publishers.

The ISSN Portal interface (https://portal.issn.org) combines free data and subscription-based access to enhanced ISSN data. New features have been added. A cartographic search is now available from the landing page, enabling to search by place of publication. Subscribing users can submit a list of ISSNs in order to check the ISSN status and get the corresponding records. Faceted refinements are possible as well as a search by subjects. The new portal also provides linked and enriched information to its customers.

The ISSN Extranet provides publishers with enhanced services meant to facilitate ISSN requests and track the assignment process at every stage. Moreover, publishers can claim ownership for publications.

ISSN assignment is now a chargeable service. An ISSN request shall cost between 25€ and 50€ as per the country where the publisher is located. Service packages are also available on request. For further information, please contact communication[at]issn.org.

The National Diet Library launched on 5 january 2018 the Online Search and Request Service (NDL Online) and a new bibliographic records service (NDL-Bib).

NDL Online is a new service replacing the NDL-OPAC. Among the major services and functionalities of the NDL Online, a new English-language interface is available and allows patrons to make requests and search NDL holdings and the Japanese Periodicals Index. In addition, a new National Diet Library Bibliographic Records Service (NDL-Bib) was launched  to enable patrons to download bibliographic information created by the National Diet Library.

As from January 2018, the ISSN International Centre is offering:

• a new ISSN Extranet for publishers with enhanced services such as:

– easy ISSN requests for publications
– tracking of the assignment process at every stage
– reports of titles for which publishers assume editorial responsibility
– fast requests for modification
– declarations of transfer of ownership
– interactions with the ISSN team through a collaborative platform

• a new ISSN Portal interface (http://portal.issn.org) combining free data and subscription-based access to enhanced ISSN data.

ISSN assignment is now a paid-for service. An ISSN request shall cost between 25 € and 50 € as per the country the publisher is located in. Service packages are also available on request.

The current ISSN Request web form will no longer be in use after Dec. 10th, 2017.

Publishers shall wait until Jan. 3rd, 2018 to send their new ISSN Requests using the extranet.

For further information, please contact communication[a]issn.org.

In January 2018, the ISSN International Centre will release its new portal and customer extranet. It has been completely re-designed and will offer a new interface to request ISSN assignments, and some new customer services.

The ISSN International Centre has been working for one year with the French IT company Progilone to set up a RDF triplestore based on the specific ISSN data model designed by the ISSN International Centre. ISSN applicants will also use the new extranet to register their publications’ data and track the status of their requests. Other features shall include online report of titles for which a given publisher assumes editorial responsibility, and online request for modification regarding the metadata describing serial publications under the responsibility of any publisher.

A first version of the portal and customer extranet will be presented as a preview for French users on December 12th, 2017 in Paris. The ISSN International Centre will make a demo of the new portal and will present new services, more specifically those available for subscribers.

Participation is free upon reservation.

[Article en français]

Do you use  ISSN? The ISSN standard is being revised and the ISSN International Centre is seeking views from all sectors as to the future of the standard.

There is a short survey available which should only take 10 minutes or so to complete. It can be found at :

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Z3D5XX5

Surveys in French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Arabic are also available.

Thank you for your time.

The annual meeting of Directors of ISSN Centres was hosted this year by the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco in Rabat (November 7-10, 2017). Twenty-seven countries were represented with participants coming from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. IFLA WLIC 2017 featured high on the agenda with presentations about the new Library Reference Model (LRM) and the revision of ISBD. Another hot topic was the release in January 2018 of the new ISSN web portal based on linked data technologies. The portal will enable the development of new services developed within the framework of the 2015-2018 strategy of the ISSN International Centre.

Philippe Cantié, Director of the French ISSN Centre, explains the process of ISSN assignments to Hypothèses scholarly blogs. These blogs are searchable by ISSN or by title on the catalog of the National Library of France, as well as on the ISSN Register (subscription-based) and ROAD, the ISSN Directory of Scholarly Open Acess Resources.

The identification of the scholarly blogs through ISSN assignments is meant to facilitate their search and discovery and to highlight the authors’ publications.

Working Together to Ensure the Future of the Digital Scholarly Record is a statement that outlines the actions required to tackle the challenges of preserving and ensuring the long term accessibility of digital scholarship. Initially released in August 2016, the statement sets out a series of recommended activities that publishers, research libraries and national libraries can undertake to support archiving and preservation initiatives. The ISSN International Centre is involved in this action. The statement has already been endorsed by 8 organisations. Other organisations are invited to endorse the statement and lend their support to this call to action.

The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) is organising its General Assembly & Workshops meeting on 26th October 2017 at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., USA. The full program is online, as well as the preliminary program for both workshops ITOC (Information Trends and Opportunities Committee) and TACC (Technical Activities Coordinating Committee). Registration is still open.

Regina Romano Reynolds, Director of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress, standing in for Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre in Paris, will present an overview of the ISSN Network’s strategy to provide enhanced access to ISSN data.

Peter Burnhill, founding Director of EDINA, University of Edinburgh, and Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre, gave this joint presentation at a satellite meeting to IFLA 2017 World Library and Information Congress, in Session 80 – Serials and Other Continuing Resources.

They reviewed the different ways in which content issued via the Web becomes Open Access, setting out the range of threats to the continuity and integrity of our published heritage: how ‘Open today’ could tomorrow become ‘closed’ or just ‘ceased to be’. Notably, the role of national and research libraries was highlighted, since the published heritage is a subset of ‘documentary heritage’ that can be monitored via the ISSN and the Keepers Registry.