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ISSN bodies

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An intergovernmental organisation, the ISSN International Centre is comprised of international bodies that govern its operations.

  • General Assembly
  • Governing Board
  • Directors’ meetings
  • Technical Advisory Committee

General Assembly

The General Assembly meets every two years.

Its main missions include:
- defining the general orientations of the ISSN International Centre’s activities,
– electing the members of the Governing Board, and
– establishing the amount of member States’ contributions.

It includes:
– a representative from each State that has acceded to the ISSN International Centre’s Statutes, including the host State, and
– the representative of the Director General of UNESCO.

The host State is the one where the ISSN International Centre carries out its activities. From the outset this has been France.

Governing Board

The Governing Board meets once a year in an ordinary session.

Its main missions include:
– establishing the programmes and directives for the ISSN International Centre’s work,
– adopting the International Centre’s work programme and budget, and
– approving the International Centre Director’s annual report.

It includes:
– a representative of the host State,
– a representative of the Director General of UNESCO, and
– 10 representatives of States that have acceded to the ISSN International Centre’s Statutes, who are elected by the General Assembly. The representatives’ term of office is renewable every two years.

Please click on this link to see the list of the ISSN Governing Board members (elected in June 2024)

Directors’ meetings

The meetings of directors of ISSN National Centres are held every year.

They are used to:
–  exchange technical experience,
–  consult before taking technical decisions, and
–  discuss subjects concerning coordination and communication.

They are organised by the host institutions that host the ISSN National Centres.

(click here to see the List of Directors’ Meetings  since 1974) 

Technical Advisory Committee

As provided for in the Statutes of the ISSN International Centre, the Director is assisted by a Technical Advisory Committee for all matters concerning the management and development of the Keepers Registry Service (KRS).
The establishment of this committee was approved by the members of the ISSN IC Governing Board and the representatives of KRS archiving agencies in a meeting held on June 22nd, 2020.
The Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) shall be the governance body for KRS.

The TAC shall comprise seven members:

– the ISSN-IC Director ex officio,
– three representatives of KRS archiving agencies appointed on a voluntary basis with a drawing of lots in the event of applications exceeding the number of seats,
– three representatives of user constituencies, e.g. associations of librarians, research libraries, publishers, organizations interested in promoting digital preservation.
Members shall serve for a 2-year mandate renewable once.
The TAC shall also invite two experts shall to serve for a non-renewable 2-year mandate.

TAC’s mandate is to develop KRS Strategy by regularly reviewing its mission and purpose, by involving stakeholder communities to advise on service development, and by maximizing impact and use of human and financial resources. TAC shall also devise a strategy to recruit new agencies by specifying the application process, the selection, and the take down policy. TAC will also promote KRS globally.

The following experts currently serve on TAC:

– John Chodacki, Director, University of California Curation Center (UC3), USA (2022-2024)
– Ted Westervelt, Chief, US/Anglo Division, Library of Congress, USA (2020-2022) (2022-2024)
– Kate Wittenberg, Portico Managing Director, ITHAKA, USA (2022-2024)
– Judith Barnsby, Senior Managing Editor, Directory of Open Access Journals, UK (2020-2022) (2022-2024)
– Ana María Cetto Kramis, Chair, Latindex, Mexico (2020-2022) (2022-2024)
– Wendy Robertson, Institutional Repository & Metadata Librarian Cataloging, Metadata Department, The University of Iowa Libraries, USA (2020-2022) (2022-2024)
– Michelle Polchow, Electronic Resources Librarian, UC Davis, USA (2022-2024)
– Stephen Marks, Digital Preservation Librarian, University of Toronto, Canada (2022-2024).

Former members of the TAC include:

– William Kilbride, Executive Director, Digital Preservation Coalition, UK (2020-2022)
– Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information, USA (2020-2022)
– Maarten Steenhuis, Strategy Advisor, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands (2020-2022)
– Craig Van Dyck, Executive Director, CLOCKSS, USA (2020-2021)
– Alicia Wise, Executive Director, CLOCKSS, USA (2021-2022)