The Sultanate of Oman has joined the ISSN network by signing a Memorandum of Understanding during its participation in the ISSN annual meeting held in Tunis in October 2024.

By joining the ISSN network, the Ministry aims to learn from global experiences in using the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) to support the marketing and dissemination of periodicals published in Oman and to enhance the publishing sector and cultural identity on the international scene.

The UAE, represented by the National Library and Archives (NLA), has become the latest member state of the ISSN network. The NLA announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the ISSN International Centre and the UAE National Commission for Education, Culture and Science. The MoU was signed by Abdulla Majed Al Ali, Director General of the NLA, and Gaelle Bequet, Director of the ISSN International Centre.

In Bosnia-Herzegovina, no books have been published for weeks because International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) and ISSN numbers for publications, journals and scientific papers are no longer being issued. The University and National Library, the only institution in Bosnia-Herzegovina that can issue such numbers, is out of operation. The background to the current crisis is that funding for seven state cultural institutions is not secured. Since 7 October 2024, nothing has been functioning at all due to the unclear legal status of the National Library. The library has also been closed to the public.

Each year this conference brings together more than 2,000 information professionals and exhibitors. On 14 November 2024, Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre, took part in a round table discussion on collaborative documentary policy as part of the Cooperative Collections Lifecycle Project (CCLP) coordinated by NISO, USA.

The National ISBN-ISSN-CIP Centre, hosted by the National Library of Romania, participated in the BIBLIOPUBLICA International Conference organized by the National Association of Public Libraries in Romania, held on November 11-12, 2024. The conference theme was The Public Library Network – A Dynamic Infrastructure Supporting Sustainable Development Priorities.

Aurelia Persinaru, the coordinator of the National ISBN-ISSN-CIP Centre, delivered a presentation titled Opportunities for Sustainable Development in Libraries – Standardized Identification of Publications. It emphasizes the role of bibliographic products, catalogs and databases generated through standardized publication identification activities in facilitating information access. The presentation highlighted resources such as the Catalog of Romanian Publishers, the CIP Catalog and Bibliography, the ISSN Portal, and ROAD.

The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to share information on standardized identification of publications in Romania and its objectives, while also facilitating discussions on strategies to promote Romanian publishing output.

Look at the programme.

Regina Romano Reynolds, Director of ISSN USA and head of the ISSN Section at the Library of Congress, will participate in a webinar organized by NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group).

ISSN may seem a simple subject but behind those 8 characters there is a lot going on. Learn about some of the shadowy situations that ISSN staff handle, and the detective work they sometimes have to do, as well as some ISSN facts– just the facts, ma’am– that might surprise you. The presentation will also pull back the curtain on some bright and shiny things to come in the ISSN world and will leave room for questions.

This webinar will take place on December 04, 2024, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET.

Register: https://nasig.org/event-5910944

The British National Bibliography (BNB) has resumed publication, following a period of unavailability due to a cyber-attack in 2023. Having started in 1950, the BNB includes books and periodicals, covering both physical and electronic material. The BNB is the first national bibliography to be made available on the Share Family initiative‘s platform. It is published as linked data, and forms part of an international collaboration of libraries to link and enhance discovery across multiple catalogues and bibliographies.

Open infrastructure is crucial in research and scholarship, but navigating this complex landscape can be challenging. Infra Finder is an evaluation tool that provides verified information on over 90 open infrastructures, covering 30 solution categories. It allows users to make informed decisions based on reliable information about openness, community governance, interoperability, and hosting options. The tool also includes new open infrastructure categories, such as data and computational infrastructure, digital preservation and archival infrastructure, and open access or subscription management tools. The Keepers Registry, a service implemented by ISSN International Centre, is among the open infrastructures.

Ganna Kharlamova, a professor at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, is a changemaker committed to reshaping scholarly communications and publishing in Ukraine. TSNUK focuses on enhancing Ukraine’s competitiveness and successful integration into the global scientific community.

One major challenge in Ukraine’s scholarly publishing sector is the lack of a professional standard for editors, particularly for scientific journals. Ukrainian authors face additional barriers due to a lack of knowledge and skills in communicating and collaborating with editorial teams of high-ranking international journals.

STM Solutions released Trusted Identity in Academic Publishing: The Central Role of Digital Identity in Research Integrity, a new report analyzing the role of digital identity in scholarly publishing and presenting a foundation for the development of guidelines and recommendations to enhance trust through technology. This report represents STM’s commitment to fostering research integrity through collaboration and the development of best-practice guidelines and recommendations.

Le chapitre transverse des Ressources continues (Instructions sur l’enregistrement des œuvres et des expressions de ressource continue) est désormais en ligne. Ce chapitre fournit des règles pour le choix, l’établissement et l’enregistrement des éléments fondamentaux visant à permettre à l’utilisateur d’identifier les œuvres contenues dans les manifestations : titres privilégiés et variantes de titre de l’œuvre et autres éléments d’identification de l’œuvre de ressource continue. En outre, il définit des éléments complémentaires qui peuvent aussi figurer dans une description précise des œuvres de ressource continue. Notamment, il établit des instructions sur la construction des points d’accès autorisés.

The 8th BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe Annual Meeting took place in September 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. The aim of this event is to be a forum for sharing knowledge about the practice of, production with, and planning of BIBFRAME implementation. The transition from MARC to Linked Data using the BIBFRAME model and related tools was discussed.

The programme, proceedings and videos are online.

Les quatorze partenaires du projet Mir@bel2022 ont choisi de s’appuyer sur le référentiel IdRef pour améliorer l’identification des éditeurs et la qualité de leur description pour les revues éditées en France. Depuis 3 ans les équipes de l’Agence bibliographique de l’enseignement supérieur (Abes) et les membres des réseaux Abes et Mir@bel ont réalisé un important travail d’alignement et de curation de données. Un dernier chantier a permis la création de plus de 200 notices IdRef et désormais, plus de 99% des éditeurs français dans Mir@bel sont dotés d’un IdRef !

The 2nd Global Summit on Diamond Open sees three distinct events with common goals and objectives: to develop capacity for the advancement of an inclusive and equitable open access paradigm.

• Department of Knowledge and Information Stewardship (DKIS) conference
• Open Science in the South 2024 conference
• Conference on Diamond Open access