On 5/22/08 8:51 AM, "John C Klensin" <john-ietf(_at_)jck(_dot_)com> wrote:
Indeed, another way of looking at this question is that deciding
to register an ISSN for the RFC series really does not preclude
anything else (including, were we so inclined, putting DOIs on
each RFC) and we should therefore be asking "ISSN or not ISSN"
with all questions about other sorts of identifiers and
cataloging being viewed as separate.
I think the cataloging question is probably central to the
question of whether or not to bother with an ISSN. I don't
think an ISSN has any practical value other than that it
increases the likelihood that LC will catalog the series/
serial and that libraries will then start sticking it into
their electronic holdings. Now, I'm not sure I see an
advantage to getting libraries to pick up RFCs given how
trivial it is to find them online, but that's another matter.
Another advantage is discrimination in the event that some other
serial publication is also called "Request for Comments," but
again I'm not sure that's an actual problem. But mainly,
getting an ISSN gets the series into the library system.
Melinda
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