The ISSN Register was already available on CD-ROM (ISSN Compact) : ISSN
Online is now (as from August 1998) one of the fundamental bibliographic
resources available over the Web.

The ISSN Register is a comprehensive tool which can be used for several
purposes :

- world-wide bibliographic searches on serial publications
- cataloguing (records can be downloaded and re-used for specific
purposes)
- constitution of controlled authority files based on ISSN (database
management)

The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) is universally accepted
as the prime means of identifying serials (journals, magazines,
periodicals of any kind), a vital first step for the management of the
articles or contributions they contain. Its use is essential throughout
the information chain, from publisher (and from the author of every
single contribution or article) to the reader, through document delivery
utilities, abstracting and indexing services, subscription agents,
libraries, union catalogues, newsagents...., for the efficient
management of research, ordering and cataloguing.

To date, some 900,000 serials published in 180 countries have been
registered and have had an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number)
assigned. The ISSN network, an intergovernmental organization, is based
in 67 National Centres which obtain data at source in the framework of
national bibliographies and legal deposit. Each year, it identifies more
than 40,000 publications.

The ISSN International Centre in Paris, which is responsible for the
coordination of the network, registers itself titles published by
international institutions (United Nations, Unesco, OECD, European
Community...) and international associations (scientific unions, learned
societies, etc.) i.e. currently more than 13,000 titles.

The sustained growth of electronic serials is reflected in ISSN Online.
More and more e-serials (whether online or on different magnetic or
optical media) are being added to the ISSN Register.

ISSN Online is updated frequently (at least on a monthly basis). Each
month some 4,000 new records are added to the ISSN Register and
thousands of amendments and corrections are input. All the additions to
the ISSN Register may be searched and browsed separately.

ISSN Online is a truly multilingual database : some 150 different
languages are represented in the ISSN Register. Non Latin scripts are
transliterated into the Latin alphabet according to the corresponding
ISO standards. Special characters and diacritics are rendered through
Unicode characters and displayed on most available browsers.

ISSN Online is available to all Internet users on a free trial basis.
The trial period expires after one month, during which up to 40 search
requests may be launched, 400 records visualised and 10 records
downloaded (in their original ISO 2709 exchange format). Just fill up
the trial request form (http://www.issn.org/online/trial.html) and you
will receive your temporary password by e-mail.

ISSN Online is available on a subscription basis, either yearly or
monthly. Please refer to the subscription page
(http://www.issn.org/onlineprice.html) for more information.

For more information about ISSN Online, please contact us at the
following address :

online@issn.org

Your comments and suggestions will be highly appreciated.

The team of the ISSN International Centre

Pierre Godefroy
Assistant to the Director / Assistant du Directeur
ISSN International Centre / Centre international de l'ISSN
20 rue Bachaumont, 75002 Paris, France
godefroy@issn.org
Web pages / Pages sur la toile :
http://www.issn.org