I am happy to report a decision from Advanstar that starting with the July
issue, they will sequentially number each issue.  July will begin with
number 14. Patient Care remains a single serial.

The separately subtitled issues were not really sections because there was
not a commitment to continue publishing the same sections
consistently.  Rather, some sections may be published only once, while
others may be repeated and still others may appear.  Given this lack of
stable sections, we concluded that there was still only one serial and
thus a consecutive numbering scheme would allow check-in and would allow a
library to know if they were missing an issue.  I also encouraged the
publisher to communicate  (when they knew) how many issues would come out
in one year. The publisher has issued a message to subscribers about the
change in numbering.

Understandably, the confusion about this publication resulted in some OCLC
records that we will ask be deleted since there is still only one serial.

Regina  R. Reynolds                     email: rrey@loc.gov
Head, National Serials Data Program     voice: (202) 707-6379
Library of Congress                     fax    (202) 707-6333
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.           ISSN Web page: lcweb.loc.gov/issn/
Washington, D.C. 20540-4160

On Wed, 6 Jun 2007, Regina Reynolds wrote:

> I have been in communication with Advanstar, publisher of Patient Care
> about the numbering situation and about whether it is their intention to
> publish several separate periodicals instead of the single periodical,
> Patient Care, that they publish at present.  Answers to the questions I
> raised will determine whether separate ISSN and records are needed.  At
> present, the publication seems to be in transition and that transition has
> resulted in the numbering that has been causing problems and concerns. One
> important consideration is that the subject-specific topics are not yet
> stabilized. In other words, some topics (now expressed as subtitles or
> part titles) may never appear again, and new ones may be introduced.
>
>
> I am scheduled to participate in a conference call on Monday, June 11 with
> several Advanstar managers and I hope we can arrive at some solutions.  It
> may be that an interim resolution is needed for now until publication
> plans become more finalized.  In the meantime, I would suggest that no new
> records for the separate parts be created and those that are in save files
> remain there for now.  I know that check-in is a problem and that the lack
> of a resolution is causing even more problems but I think it's better to
> make a decision with input from the publisher rather than to go in a
> direction that might have to be reversed later.
>
> I'll let you know the outcome of Monday's meeting as quickly as possible.
>
> Regina 	R. Reynolds                     email: rrey@loc.gov
> Head, National Serials Data Program     voice: (202) 707-6379
> Library of Congress                     fax    (202) 707-6333
> 101 Independence Avenue, S.E.           ISSN Web page: lcweb.loc.gov/issn/
> Washington, D.C. 20540-4160
>