-----Original Message-----
From: Joanna Tousley-Escalante [mailto:J.Tousley@IAEA.ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 10:15 AM
Subject: Serials with no ISSN

We are in the throes of starting up a new library system and have encountered
a special problem  [...], both the BIB and the Serials record must contain the
same ISSN.  Well and good, except that we have a fair number of small
newsletters and organization
publications that do not have an ISSN.
We are searching all possible sources for such a number, including OCLC,
Ulrich's, the ISSN database, et al.[ ...]

Also, this system has a check that requires the ISSN to be a "valid" ISSN. So
for those titles with no ISSN we cannot just add a made up number.

Does anyone know how to make a valid ISSN that is not a correct ISSN?  I have
seen ISSN's in the $z subfield on OCLC, and I also have seen ISSN's with X as
the last digit.  Is there a way we can create a dummy ISSN within the valid
structure of the ISSN? [...]

Regards,Joanna Tousley-Escalante
*       Head, TSU
*       VIC Library - IAEA
*       Vienna, Austria
*       j.tousley@iaea.org
*       431 2600-22624
>>>>>
Please do not make up your own ISSN!!

The authority in charge of ISSN's is the national ISSN-centre. Each centre
has a list of number to assign to publications. If you have a publication
that does not have an ISSN assigned to it, you could always contact the
centre in question (ie of the country where the publication hails from)
and request a number.

The ISSN is a unique number, related to one particular title only; the
number+title being registered in the ISSN-register (which can be consulted
online or otherwise). It is used by cataloguers etc. all over the world to
identify a particular title. When we need to find information on an
obscure title, we might also consult other library catalogues. It would be
undesirable if individuals started making up their own numbers!

The ISSN is made up of 7 digits with the 8th being the check-digit, much
like the isbn; this last digit can be a number or an x.
As for subfield $z in OCLC: could this be the subfield used for
'incorrect' ISSN's, i.e. ISSN which appears in the publication in hand,
but does not belong to it (f.i. it's the ISSN of the predecessor, or
containing a printing error)?

greetings,
Anneke Houtkamp
UBVU (University Library, Free University of Amsterdam)
The Netherlands
<JHM.Houtkamp@ubvu.vu.nl>