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Re: ISSN for RFC Series under Consideration

2008-05-22 08:33:27
Hi all:

In a former life I published a Theatre Technology newsletter; we got an
ISSN for it, as a result two libraries asked for copies of each issue so
that they could archive them.  That was the only effect.

So, I agree with Melinda - it's worth getting an ISSN, and recognition
from the Library world, but it's unlikely to have any other effect.

Cheers, Nevil

---------------------------------------------------------------------
  Nevil Brownlee                    Computer Science Department | ITS
  Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x88941             The University of Auckland
  FAX: +64 9 373 7453   Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand


On 22/05/2008, at 9:52 AM, Melinda Shore wrote:

On 5/21/08 5:39 PM, "Brian E Carpenter"  
<brian(_dot_)e(_dot_)carpenter(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
Possibly not, but there is still a crusty old world of academic
publications with traditional reference styles out there, and an ISSN
will make it much more straightforward to cite RFCs in peer-reviewed
publications. +1 that it's a no-brainer.

Hi - I'm really not trying to be a contrarian, just trying to
sort through the actual issues here.  I don't think I've ever seen
a reference that included an ISSN.  I've also never seen one
used as a subject header (index term) in cataloging.  The only
time I've personally seen them used is as *descriptive* information
in a  catalog (library catalog, publisher's catalog, etc.).  I'm
sure someone will be happy to dig up a counterexample but
I do think they're pretty unusual.  Really, what are the odds
that someone knows the ISSN but not the title or the author or
the publisher or ... ?

The practical benefit I see here is getting the Library of
Congress (and who knows?  maybe the British Library, etc.)
to catalog the series as a series, but again I'm unclear on
the practical benefit, since RFCs are incredibly easy to find
*as* RFCs; that is to say, by the information by which the
series will be cataloged and classified.

I don't see any disadvantage to doing it, it's just that I
can't see much advantage, either.  I figure we should just
go ahead and do it and not have any expectations that the
RFCs will be any more accessible, any more searchable, etc.
More like a change in status than a change in substance.

Melinda
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