Hello Serial Specialists

Lately I've been noticing a number of periodical titles that
print a barcode prominently on either the front or back cover
of the journal issue. For instance I'm looking at an issue of
Journal of the American Society for Information Science. From
the explanatory numbers in small font under the barcode I
recognise the elements of ISSN, year of publication, volume
and issue nos.

My questions in relation to this are:

1)   Does this barcode conform to a standard, eg. ISO,
     NISO/ANSI ?

          If so, then what standard number(s) ?

2)   I'm interested in examples of how serial publishers,
     subscription agents use these for stock control.

3)   I'm interested in hearing of library systems / serials
     control modules that use these barcodes for serials
     check-in.

4)   Would anyone care to guess what proportion of journal
     publishers print this barcode ?

5)   Would welcome bibliographic references where this issue
     is discussed in the professional literature.

Thanks in anticipation

Graham.
.________________________________________________________________________.
|                                                                        |
| Graham Dawson                           Internet:  g.dawson@qut.edu.au |
| Cataloguing Section                        Voice:   +  61  7  864 3257 |
| Queensland University of Technology          Fax:   +  61  7  864 3994 |
| Library                              *                                 |
| Locked Bag No. 2                   *   *                               |
| RED HILL  QLD  4059                   .                                |
| Brisbane   Australia                 *        Local VAXMail:   DAWSONG |
|                                                                        |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+