The first meeting of national consortia from Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain took place in Mexico in early September 2017. It was organized by the Ministries of Science and Technology from Mexico, Chile and Brazil and attended by representatives from ten countries responsible for negotiating with publishers for national access to scientific/research publications. IBICT (Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia) and CONICYT (Comisión nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica) –the hosting institutions of the Brazilian and Chilean ISSN Centres– participated in the meeting. A statement was issued, which expresses the concerns of the participating organizations over the costs of APCs (article publishing charges) and outlines their perspective on international discussions around flipping subscriptions to APC open access. Most notably, the consortia were in agreement that APCs will not help to reduce costs, but rather contribute to the already inflationary situation with the current international scholarly publishing system.

The declaration is online in Spanish and English.

ROAD, the ISSN Directory of Open Access Scholarly Resources, reached a milestone surpassing 22,000 resources. This was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the ISSN network.

Launched in December 2013 by the ISSN International Centre and supported by the Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO, ROAD provides a free access to a subset of the ISSN Register. This subset gathers bibliographic records describing and pointing to worldwide, multidisciplinary scholarly resources in open access that have been identified by the ISSN Network. ROAD gathers not only journals, but also conference proceedings, monographic series, academic repositories and blogs. ROAD innovative concept is that ISSN bibliographic records are enhanced with external information aggregated from data sources like indexing and abstracting services, metrics and registries.

Clément Oury, Head of Data, Network & Standards department at ISSN International Centre, participated in the first Bibframe workshop held on 26 and 27 of September 2017 at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (DNB) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He presented a lightning talk about the use of Bibframe for serials and other continuing resources and the choices made by the ISSN International Centre to implement Bibframe for continuing resources in the future ISSN portal.

The workshop was arranged by the Nordic Network Group on bibliographic and infrastructure topics (NNG) and the Organizer Group in close cooperation with the DNB. The goal of this workshop was to take stock on the current situation of Biframe and its use in European institutions.

The presentations and documents are available online.

ISSN identifiers reliably identify serials and other ongoing resources worldwide. The ISSN Register, maintained by the ISSN International Centre, is an authoritative database providing access to 1.9 million ISSN records, and fed by a network of 89 National Centres. This article presents the Data Quality Plan currently implemented by the ISSN International Centre: its objectives, its assumptions and the methodology it follows. It focuses on several projects, ran in collaboration with stakeholders of the serials supply chain or members of the ISSN Network, intended to improve quality in three domains: bibliographic data, coverage of the ISSN Register, processes and workflows.

The report is available in English and French at (LINK).

The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library) has been acting as a disseminator and a contact partner for the BIBFRAME initiative within the German-speaking countries. The library makes use of existing structures and bodies to provide information and incorporate this experience into the initiative.

The European BIBFRAME Workshop will be organized at the DNB on 26 and 27 September 2017. It is coordinated by the Nordic Network Group on bibliographic and infrastructure topics (NNG).

Clément Oury, Head of the Data, Network and Standards Deparment at ISSN IC, will give a presentation about ISSN projects and the use of Bibframe for serials and other continuing resources.

More on BIBFRAME can be found in the report about BIBFRAME Update Forum at ALA Annual Conference 2017.

The ISSN International Centre will make a presentation on the topic Innovative functionalities to request ISSN, access ISSN Data and manage your subscription. The aim is to present the new interface to request ISSN assignments, subscribe to ISSN services and access ISSN linked data. Serial publishers and subscribers to ISSN services will enjoy enhanced workflows, better research options, useful features such as title claims, data updates, transfer statement and more. The presentation will take place on 13 October 2017,  at Publishing Services Hot Spot, Hall 4.0 / Booth J25.

Moreover, ISSN IC Sales team will participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair at the International Library Centre, ILC– hall 4.2, stand N 75, from 11 to 13 October 2017.

IFLA Academic and Research Libraries Section (ARL), with the generous sponsorship by Ex Libris and Sage, offered three Attendance Grants for the 2017 IFLA Congress in Wroclaw, Poland to information professionals from Africa, Asia/Pacific region and Latin America. Ms Tainá Batista de Assis, the Director of ISSN Brazil hosted by the Brazilian Institute for Information in Science and Technology (IBICT), won a grant to attend IFLA Conference in Poland.

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre, and Regina Romano Reynolds, Director of the US ISSN Centre and Head of ISSN Section, Library of Congress made a presentation during the session The Once and Future ISSN at ALA (American Libraries Association) Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL, 22-27 June 2017). The detailed report is now available, and Gaëlle Béquet’s presentation is online.

The International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI) will gather for its General Assembly & Workshops meeting to take place on 26th October 2017 at the Library of Congress in Washington DC, 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), and the registration is open.

On this occasion, 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. The strategy includes enhancing the ISSN International Centre’s operations, infrastructure, data, products and services, communications, and partnerships.