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MARC DISCUSSION PAPER NO. 2007-DP03

DATE: Dec. 15, 2006
REVISED:

NAME: Recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats

SOURCE: ISSN International Centre

SUMMARY: This paper discusses the need to record the newly defined ISSN-L in MARC 21 records. The linking ISSN is an identifier intended to provide a mechanism to group the various medium versions of a continuing resource.

KEYWORDS: Field 022 (AD, BD, HD), International Standard Serial Number, Linking ISSN, ISSN-L

RELATED:

STATUS/COMMENTS:

12/15/2006 - Made available to the MARC community for discussion.

01/21/2007 - Results of the MARC Advisory Committee discussion - The group strongly preferred Option 1: Addition of new MARC 21 subfields to record ISSN-L in field 022 (ISSN). A proposal will be prepared for the annual meeting. Discussion is needed about when and how the subfield for cancelled or incorrect ISSN-L should be used.

Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP03: Recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L)

1 BACKGROUND

The revision of the International Standard, ISO 3297, Information and documentation - International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), concluded in November 2006 with the adoption of a new edition of the ISO ISSN Standard by the ISO Member Bodies. This new edition of ISO 3297 will be published in the first half of 2007.

One of the main outcomes of this revision was the addition of new functionality to the ISSN by the definition and the development of the "linking ISSN" or ISSN-L.

The purpose of the ISSN-L is to provide a mechanism for grouping, or collocating, the various medium versions of a resource, for instance, the print and online versions of a journal.

The serials community, i.e., those involved in the production, distribution, management of, and access to serial resources had expressed the strong desire that the ISSN system meet two different needs:

• The need for the ISSN to identify the various medium versions of a continuing resource, for product management purposes. To meet this need, separate ISSN are assigned to the various medium versions of a resource.
• The need for a collocating, or grouping mechanism that would bring together various medium versions, and thus facilitate content management. The ISSN-L has now been defined to meet this currently unmet need.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1. Data element needed

The ISO ISSN Standard defines the ISSN-L as "the ISSN designated by the ISSN Network to enable collocation or linking among the different media versions of a continuing resource."

"The first ISSN assigned, in the ISSN Register, to any medium version of a continuing resource shall be designated by default to function also as the ISSN-L and shall apply to all other media versions of that resource identified in the ISSN Register.

"The ISSN-L shall be included as a separate data element on each of the metadata records to which it pertains in the ISSN Register. Each metadata record in the ISSN Register will therefore carry the medium-specific ISSN assigned to the resource described in the record and the designated linking ISSN as separate data elements."

"An ISSN-L shall be designated for each continuing resource identified in the ISSN Register, even if the continuing resource exists in only one medium."

"Only one ISSN-L shall be designated regardless of how many different media versions of a continuing resource exist."

The above rules from the new ISO ISSN Standard stipulate that the ISSN-L is a separate data element, distinct from the medium-specific ISSN, but it is not to be considered a new identifier.

2.2 Definition of field 022

Field 022 is defined in the MARC 21 bibliographic, authority and holdings formats as follows:

022 - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD SERIAL NUMBER (R)

2.3. Option 1: Addition of 2 new MARC 21 subfields to record ISSN-L in field 022 (ISSN)

Field 022 contains the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), a unique identification number assigned to a continuing resource, and/or any incorrect or cancelled ISSN. As the ISSN-L shall be designated from among the ISSN assigned to the different media versions of a continuing resource, the logical place for this data element is within the ISSN field. An ISSN-L shall be designated for each continuing resource (including all ISSN in the ISSN Register whether current or ceased)

2.3.1 Addition of a new MARC 21 022 subfield to record the ISSN-L

It is proposed to add a new subfield “f” in field 022 to store the designated ISSN-L. This subfield will not be repeatable.

Example:

Resource with two medium versions (note each medium version has its own ISSN and its own record):

Record for online version:
022 0#$a1560-1560$f1234-1231

2.2.2. Addition of a new MARC 21 022 subfield to record incorrect/cancelled ISSN-L

In some rare cases, for human or technical reasons, the ISSN-L designated for a given publication may change (for instance because two distinct media versions of a continuing resource were not originally identified as different media versions and had distinct ISSN assigned). In this case, it is necessary to record both the valid ISSN-L (stored in subfield “f”) and the former incorrect or cancelled one, which we propose to store in a new subfield “g” of field 022. This new subfield “g” will be repeatable. Field 022 currently uses subfield $y for incorrect ISSN and subfield $z for cancelled. It is not clear that both of these are needed for a cancelled or invalid ISSN-L.

Example:

Becomes (once the link between the two has been established):

Pros:

• All ISSN (for identification and for collocation) are stored in the same field.
• ISSN and ISSN-L are stored in the field which includes also the ISSN Centre source (022 subfield 2 which contains a code indicating the ISSN centre responsible for the assignment).

Cons:

• There is a risk of confusion and incorrect transcription for those recording ISSN information from eye-readable data in field 022.

2.4. Option 2: Defining a second indicator to specify whether the ISSN is a linking one.

Another option is to define the second indicator with two values to identify whether the ISSN in the field is a linking one or not. In this case, the field would have to be repeated to record both ISSN. A value blank could be used for the medium specific ISSN and value 1 for linking ISSN. The same subfields already used for ISSN could then be used for the linking ISSN.

Example:

Pros:

• All ISSN (for identification and for collocation) are stored in the same field.
• ISSN and ISSN-L are stored in the field which includes the ISSN Centre source
• The same subfields may be used for both forms of ISSN

Cons:

• There is a risk of confusion in the use of the same tag with same subfields (022) for two different types of ISSN (ISSN for identification of a specific continuing resource and ISSN-L for collocation of of the different media versions of a continuing resource)
• Some institutions, in particular the ISSN Network, have implemented 022 as not repeatable
• The costs to implement this solution in the institutions where 022 is not repeatablewould probably be higher, as this would mean a substantial change in the checking rules.
• Users will have to know the meaning of the indicator value (or systems will need to display appropriate text) to distinguish them.
• Use of the same field with different indicators may confuse users in presenting the ISSN-L as a new identifier, distinct from the “traditional” ISSN field with different indicator.

3 QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION

1. Would option 1 result in too many subfields in one field that record various varieties of the ISSN?
2. If option 1 is desirable, is it necessary to distinguish cancelled and incorrect ISSN-L by defining a subfield for each?
3. If option 2 is desirable, are there issues with allowing the repetition of field 022?
4. Is one of the options more or less costly to implement?
5. Are there other options to be considered (e.g. use of 024)?

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