In November 2020, ISSN Uplink opened its virtual doors at the Library of Congress. It is the first online application system for those seeking international standard serial numbers (ISSN) from U.S. ISSN Center at the Library.

For applicants, the benefits of ISSN Uplink are many compared with the paper- and email-based application process it replaces. ISSN requesters not only can apply online for ISSNs, but they can also create accounts that include team members, track the status of their applications, communicate with ISSN staff and view a history of all their applications, communications and ISSNs assigned.
For ISSN staff, the history that Uplink retains will enable them to provide better service to users during the ISSN assignment process and for future inquiries. The system also allows staff to edit communication templates as needed, track ISSN requests and send automated reminders to applicants when published issues the Library wishes to collect are overdue.

The Library of Congress’ ISSN program started in 1972, so it is approaching its 50-year anniversary. What better early anniversary present than ISSN Uplink!
More information about ISSN Uplink: see ISSN page and consult the FAQ.

Typically ISSN are used for continuous publications that appear numbered or dated, but scientific blogs or databases of general interest can also be registered. In the allocation, only the formal criteria are examined. Mareike König clearly explains which requirements must be met in order to be assigned an ISSN, and for which benefits. The ISSN supports visibility and long-term citability, important prerequisites for the recognition of blogs as a form of communication relevant to science.

The new entity CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR) was inaugurated with a new Vision on 14 January 2021 by the Union Science and Technology Minister of India, Dr Harsh Vardhan. The new Institute has been established after the merger of two prestigious institutes of CSIR namely, CSIR-NISCAIR and CSIR-NISTADS. The merger will combine strength of two institutes in a synergistic way with a vision to become a globally respected Think Tank and Resource Centre for understanding Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) Policy Research and Communication. CSIR-NISCAIR manages the largest and oldest National Science Library and also distributes International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for Indian continuing resources. It has been the custodian of the National Knowledge Resource Consortium (NKRC) which facilitates access to more than 5,000 e-journals of all major publishers, patents, standards, citations, and bibliographic databases.

Gaëlle Béquet will give a presentation on the production of ISO international standards at the conference organized by AFNOR, the French standardization agency, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Quai Branly Museum and Sorbonne University. This conference will take place on the occasion of the publication of ISO 21110 – Emergency preparedness and response in libraries, archives and museums. Registration is free of charge.​ Program available here.

The ISSN Review Group will present two proposals to update MARC to the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC) on January 26th, 2021. The proposals can be read on the MAC website here: https://www.loc.gov/marc/mac/mw2021_age.html

Gaëlle Béquet, ISSN IC Director, will attend the online conference PIDapalooza -The Open Festival of Persistent Identifiers on 27 January 2021. The program is available.

PIDapalooza, the open festival of persistent identifiers, will be held online from 27-28 January 2021 with a multilingual program. Notably, Carlos Norberto Authier (ISSN Centre of Argentina) will speak about persistent identifiers assigned for free to academic articles in Argentina; Abel Packer (SciELO) will describe SciELO Program adoption of PIDs towards more visibility and participation in the global flow of scientific information; Arnaud Gingold will give examples of PIDs implementation’s options and strategies from the OpenEdition platforms and the OPERAS discovery service TRIPLE; and Laura Paglione will advocate for richer metadata that fuels discovery and innovation.

Research libraries are faced with a pressing demand to assess the value of their services and evidence their impact. In order to develop a better understanding of how research libraries respond to this demand, the authors collected and analysed case-study and survey data from across the RLUK membership. The authors present some of the key findings, showing the pathways to impact, and reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the digital era presents for increasing and measuring this impact.

Casalini Libri joins forces with its historic partner @Cult, a software house based in Rome and specializing in the design and development of solutions for information management and knowledge sharing. The union both strengthens and furthers the Casalini mission to promote the dissemination of culture through increasingly advanced services to libraries, institutions and publishers. They both promote Share-VDE, a collaborative endeavour and a library-driven initiative. This prototype platform for searching and accessing bibliographic resources according to the BIBFRAME data model brings together the bibliographic catalogues and authority files of a community of libraries in a shared discovery environment based on linked data.

2020 marks a milestone in the half-century of international collaborative accomplishments of SEAM (Southeast Asia Materials Project) under the governance of the Center for Research Libraries. SEAM is a global membership-based consortium of academic institutions interested in supporting Southeast Asian scholarly resources.

The Slavic and East European Materials Project (SEEMP) has preserved a large set of newspapers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.  These newspapers were collected by Dr. William Fierman, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University and extend the collection SEEMP preserved in 2016.

The journal brand has proven to be the great intangible asset of the scholarly publisher. It signals trust and authority to authors and readers alike. Nevertheless, looking ahead, there are real tensions emerging in how the scholarly record will be structured and who will have ownership and control over it. What are the opportunities and challenges as publishers seek to extend the reach — and value — of their journal brands by supporting research materials beyond the version of record? Digging into the evolving context of preprints and research data offers valuable clues.

In scholarly publishing, blacklists aim to register fraudulent or deceptive journals and publishers, also known as “predatory”, to minimise the spread of unreliable research and the growing of fake publishing outlets. However, blacklisting remains a very controversial activity for several reasons. Cabell’s paywalled blacklist service attempts to review fraudulent journals on the basis of transparent criteria and to provide allegedly up-to-date information at the journal entry level. A team of academic librarians  tested Cabell’s blacklist to analyse whether or not it could be adopted as a reliable tool by stakeholders in scholarly communication. They expose their methodology and conclude with recommendations and suggestions that could help improve Cabell’s blacklist service.

This new and unique tool aims to help the scientific community to better understand the problem of fake journals and fake publishers. Compass to publish makes it possible to assess the authenticity of Open Access journals by answering a series of questions.

The past two decades have witnessed accelerated demand for open access (OA) to scholarly publications propelled by the progress in digital technologies. The government of India new policy “one nation one subscription” aims to facilitate larger access to journal articles generated from publicly funded research. However, OA experts argue that this will promote a subscription-based culture rather than providing a sustainable alternative to move away from it. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore has been a strong advocate for OA and recently organised a series of discussions to shed light on the roadblocks to OA route especially in the Indian context. India can learn from the early adoption and successful journey of local OA publishing in Latin America.

On 1st January 2021, the government of India released the ambitious draft policy for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP) to the public for comments. The policy aims to bring about changes in the research ecosystem of India by encouraging innovation to make the Indian science and technology ecosystem one that can survive global competition. As part of such an endeavour, the government proposed a ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ plan which would make thousands of journals freely available to Indians.

This White Paper – produced in collaboration with the STM Association – provides an evidence base, supporting practical recommendations towards the equitable and inclusive shift towards open access publishing in countries eligible for Research4Life participation.

This OPERAS workshop took place on 17 November 2020 as part of the 15th Munin Conference on Scholarly Publishing 2020. The discussion showed that overviews over Open Access publishing possibilities, especially for journals, have strongly evolved and are already of good quality in many countries. Yet, this is not true for all European countries and particularly for Open Access publishing of monographs and books. During the discussion it became clear that the community-debate should now focus on building the “house” for Open Access.

Read the full report.

The International Conference on Bibliographic Control in the Digital Ecosystem, organised by Firenze University and to be held online from 8-12 February 2021 aims to explore the new boundaries of Universal Bibliographic Control. The conference will bring together metadata experts from major libraries and publishers’ associations.

The programme is announced. Participation is free, but registration is necessary.

The free webinar covers navigating and searching the Toolkit, new features and functions of the site, and some tips for getting the most out of it. Register by January 25th.

The next RDA Lab Series, presented by cataloger and recent RDA Steering Committee member Kate James, is scheduled to run from 23 February 2021 to 18 August 2021. This upcoming iteration of the familiar series invites registrants to work with the new RDA Toolkit in either one of two time slots of their choosing. While designed specifically for the time convenience of users in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania and the UK, the series welcomes participation by catalogers everywhere. Registration is now open here on the ALA Store website. 

This multi-day working forum, sponsored by the Collaborative Initiative for French Language Collections (CIFNAL), the German-North American Resources Partnership (GNARP), both working projects of the Center for Research Libraries, will focus on three areas: collaborative collection development and services; the growing range of content and format types; and the evolving role of libraries and librarians in the research process. The program is online. Sessions are free, registration is required.

This is a 1.5-hour training webinar for IFLA Committee Members who contribute standards to the Namespaces. Register to join the webinar.

The next meeting of IFLA Linked Data Technical subcommittee (LIDATEC) will take place online on 27 January 2021. The agenda is online.