Since January 2018, the ISSN International Centre has continuously been improving the ergonomy, the layout and the design of the ISSN Portal, that offers enriched and linked information to its subscribers. A logo for the ISSN Portal has been created and is now displayed on the banner of the ISSN Portal home page (https://portal.issn.org).

The ISSN International Centre has been invited to participate in ABES Annual Conference. Nathalie Cornic, Head of Metadata and Technical Coordination of the ISSN Network, will give a joint presentation with Philippe Cantié, Head of ISSN France, about the contribution of the ISSN Network in CIDEMIS. This professional application, whose acronym means Dematerialized CIrcuit of ISSN Requests, is designed to automate the management of ISSN assignment and modification requests for continuous resources reported in the SUDOC. A presentation about the latest developments of the ISSN Portal is also on the agenda.

The National Library of Nigeria (NLN) launched a new application for the assignment of international standard numbers (ISSN and ISBN) on 11 May 2019 during the Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF).

Prof. Lenrie Olatokunbo Aina, Chief Executive Officer of the National Library Of Nigeria, explains that this application will enable librarians and publishers to track the level of legal deposit compliance, a precondition for further issuance of new standard numbers.

On April 18th, 2019, the National Book Chamber of the Republic of Moldova (NBCRM) and ISSN National Centre for Moldova organized a conference-meeting entitled: National editorial system – the National Book Chamber: Interactions and paradigms. The event was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, in partnership with the Moldovan Publishers Association, the Institute for Information Society Development (IDSI), and Andrei Lupan Scientific Library (Institute).

The event included an update for stakeholders regarding ISSN, as well as other identifiers such as ISBN and ISMN, and sessions where the attendees reported back on the current status of publishing from their own perspectives.

The full press release (in English) from the conference can be downloaded here.

Gaëlle Béquet, Director of the ISSN International Centre, will chair the 2019 ISO TC46 Annual Meeting hosted by Library and Archives Canada/Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. The program includes a meeting of ISO TC46/SC9/WG5 experts who will discuss the outcomes of the 2019 DIS ballot regarding the ISSN standard ISO 3297.

The French Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education (ABES) organises every year in Montpellier, France, its annual conference with its network of academic libraries.  ABES also holds annually the SUDOC PS Network Meeting with university librarians specialized in serial identification and cataloguing.

The ISSN International Centre has been invited to participate in both events. Nathalie Cornic, Head of the Metadata and Technical Coordination of the ISSN Network, will participate in SUDOC PS Network Meeting to be held on 27 May 2019. She will give a joint presentation with Philippe Cantié, Head of ISSN France, about the participation of the ISSN Network in CIDEMIS. This professional application, whose acronym means Dematerialized CIrcuit of ISSN Requests, is designed to automate the management of ISSN assignment and modification requests for continuous resources reported in the Sudoc. A presentation of the latest developments of the ISSN Portal is also on the agenda.

Nathalie Cornic, Head of the Metadata and Technical Coordination of the ISSN Network, will attend COAR Annual Meeting to be held 21-23 May 2019 in Lyon, France.

COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories) vision is to work with the repository community and other stakeholders to develop a sustainable and inclusive global knowledge commons. The 2019 COAR Annual Meeting will continue efforts to foster existing relationships across countries and regions in support of global interoperability, sharing of perspectives, and knowledge exchange. The meeting will launch a dialogue with domain repositories and have presentations outlining new initiatives to support publishing functionalities on top of repositories. It will also offer opportunities for participants to discuss other current topics and trends such as FAIR data, next generation repositories and Plan S. Keynote speakers will bookend the meeting to underscore why working towards sustainable open access and open science is so important.

Pierre Godefroy, Head of Information Systems, will participate in a meeting organised by JISC about The Future of Metadata: An Action Plan Discussion, to be held in London on 22 May 2019. This invite-only event is led by active participants in the Community Data Group that formed in response to the Jisc-led National Bibliographic Knowledgebase (NBK). It will bring together a wide range of key stakeholders (libraries, data suppliers, publishers, vendors and standard agencies)  to create an action agenda to clarify the demand, optimise the supply, and enhance the quality of metadata for print and electronic published resources. Participants will work towards agreement on a set of principles around the supply and exploitation of bibliographic data. Discussions will be based on a Jisc-commissioned recent report (download summary slide deck) by Ken Chad Consulting Ltd.

The ISSN portal is now available in Chinese and in Arabic. English, French and Spanish interfaces are also provided for publishers requesting ISSN assignments and subscribers managing their access options.

Prof Lenrie Aina, Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Nigeria, has called on stakeholders in the publishing industry to comply with international standards of publications in Nigeria. His appeal was made at the opening of a sensitisation workshop on legal deposit, ISSN and ISBN. He expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of adherence to statutory regulation of the organisation and stressed the need for compliance by all stakeholders.