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MARC PROPOSAL NO. 2007-05

DATE: May 30, 2007
REVISED:

NAME: Definition of 022 subfields for 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. It proposes using field 022 with a new subfield for linking ISSN and canceled ISSN-L.

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

RELATED: 2007-DP03

STATUS/COMMENTS:

5/30/07 - Made available to the MARC community for discussion.

06/24/2007 - Results of the MARC Advisory Committee discussion - Approved.

07/13/2007 - Results of LC/LAC/BL review - Approved

Discussion Paper No. 2007-05: Definition of 022 subfields for linking ISSN

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.

Discussion Paper No. 2007-DP03 (Recording the linking ISSN (ISSN-L) in the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority, and Holdings Formats) was presented to the MARC community in January 2007 and explored the options in establishing data elements for the ISSN-L . Consensus was to define new subfields in field 022 for ISSN-L and for canceled and/or incorrect ISSN-L rather than the option to repeat the field and add an indicator to specify whether the field contained an ISSN or ISSN-L. Participants felt that more discussion was needed about when and how the subfield for incorrect/canceled ISSN-L might be used.

2 DISCUSSION

2.1. Concept of linking ISSN

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. Addition of a new MARC 21 subfield 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 canceled 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)

It is proposed that a new subfield “l” be added 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#$a1560-1560$l1234-1231

2.4. Addition of MARC 21 subfield for canceled ISSN-L

In some rare cases, for human or technical reasons, there will be a need to record a canceled ISSN-L. A canceled ISSN-L could occur in the case that the ISSN-L was assigned and it was not recognized that a different one was appropriate, so it had to be canceled (for instance because two distinct media versions of a continuing resource were not originally identified as different media versions and had distinct ISSN-L designated). In these cases, it is necessary to record both the valid ISSN-L (stored in subfield “l”) and the canceled one. This paper proposes a new subfield $m of field 022 to store the canceled ISSN-L. This new subfield will be repeatable in case there are multiple canceled ISSN-L.

The International ISSN Centre expects to record a canceled ISSN-L in all records which record the correct ISSN-L, i.e. all media versions of a work. However, this is a policy issue for the International ISSN Centre that is currently under development.

The International ISSN Centre considered whether a subfield was needed for an incorrect ISSN-L. An incorrect ISSN-L might occur when the ISSN-L was incorrectly printed in the publication (i.e. by the publisher) or incorrectly transcribed in the record (i.e. by an ISSN center). Since these situations would not frequently occur, they would be confusing to users, and the International ISSN Centre felt that there was no need to track an incorrect ISSN-L in its own subfield, a separate subfield for incorrect ISSN-L is NOT being proposed. Subfield $y could be used to contain all incorrect ISSN, whether linking or medium specific.

It is important to remember that the ISSN centers will be responsible to record any canceled ISSN-L that had been assigned; it will not be the responsibility of catalogers.

Example:

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

Record for print version
022 0#$a1234-1231$l1234-1231

Record for online version
022 0#$a1560-1560$l1234-1231$m1560-1560

3 PROPOSED CHANGES

In the MARC 21 Bibliographic, Authority and Holdings Formats:

• Define subfield $l for ISSN-L in field 022 as follows:
  • $l - ISSN-L (NR)
    Subfield $l contains the ISSN-L, which is an ISSN that links together various media versions of a continuing resource.
    
• Define subfield $m for canceled ISSN-L in field 022
  • $m - Canceled ISSN-L (R)
    Subfield $m contains a canceled ISSN-L that has been associated with the resource. Each canceled ISSN-L is contained in a separate subfield $m.

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