ISSN 2159-9424

Last month I wrote to the Library of Congress to find out if I needed a new ISSN for Paperback Writer (I've been using the same one I received for my old weblog ten years ago.)

I have gotten a response, and turns out that I did need a new one:

2/14/2011

Dear Publisher:

This is your official notification that the following ISSN assignment(s) have been made under the auspices of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress. Please print or save this notification for your records.

Paperback writer
ISSN 2159-9424

Please note that a separate ISSN is needed for each medium version (e.g., print, CD-ROM, online) you publish. For your convenience, we have reported the ISSN of all medium versions of this title we have in our database even if not all were assigned at this time.The preferred locations for displaying the ISSN on a printed serial are the upper right-hand corner of the cover, or the masthead, or another prominent place. The ISSN should always be printed with the letters ISSN preceding the number as we have listed it above. The preferred location for display of the ISSN on an online publication is the title screen or home page. If you publish a title in both print and online versions, please print both ISSN together on each version, filling in the blanks in the example below with the digits of your ISSN:

ISSN _ _ _ _- _ _ _ _ (print)
ISSN _ _ _ _- _ _ _ _ (online)

An ISSN remains valid as long as the title remains unchanged. Please inform us in advance of any planned changes in your title so we can determine if a new ISSN is needed.

Attached to the email version of this message are documents about uses and benefits of the ISSN, how to present and title your serial, and your Copyright obligations. Our web site at www.loc.gov/issn includes these documents as well as additional ISSN information and an ISSN application form that you can download for future ISSN requests. If you have any questions or if we may be of additional assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

ISSN Publisher Liaison Section staff
lwm

So that's the official ruling on whether or not you need a new ISSN if your weblog name and URL changes. If you would like to apply for an ISSN for your blog or online serial publication, here are the links again:

For U.S. bloggers, go to the Library of Congress's U.S. ISSN center to get started (where you can now even apply for an ISSN online.)

If you reside outside the U.S., you can apply to either the national ISSN center in your country or (if your country doesn't have a center) the ISSN International Centre in Paris.

Got ISSN?

ISSN is the acronym for International Standard Serial Number. The Library of Congress suggests thinking of it as "the social security number of the serials world." Like the ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, it is a number assigned to a publication as identification. The ISSN is used when the publication is ongoing or serial versus a one-time-only publication like a book. Simply put, an ISSN is a bar code for your blog.

Weblogs fall under the category of serial publications (a serial does not have to be printed) and getting an ISSN for your blog is something to consider for a number of reasons. First, there are no special benefits involved in obtaining an ISSN for your blog. Having an ISSN doesn't give you any special copyright protection; registering your blog with an ISSN doesn't mean no one else can use the title of your blog (titles are not copyright-protected; occasionally they can be registered with the Patent Office, but that's another can of worms.) If you use blog content in newsletters you mail out, having an ISSN doesn't entitle you to discounted postage rates (although the post office does use it to regulate certain serials like magazines and other print periodicals that come through their system.)

What an ISSN does is distinguish your weblog from all the others out there in NetPubLand. If you have a popular or common title for your blog, your ISSN can prevent your content from being confused with content under the same name written by someone else. It also creates an official identification that will be indexed and used in serial reference databases around the world. Libraries already use ISSN to index their serial reference databases, and as the popularity of e-readers and other internet gadgets grow, it's likely other public-access reference databases will be compile online serial content for use as knowledge bases and resource materials (the UKSG & NISO's KBart committee is already setting up standards.)

I applied for my weblog ISSN about ten years ago, and it's come in handy a few times when I've referenced my online content in letters, publication credits and such. I always assumed the number went with me wherever I blogged, but recently a friend told me that I probably need a new number for PBW because the URL and title are different from the blog I was writing back in 2001 (when I first applied.) I've written to the LoC about it, and I'm waiting to hear back from them (will update this post as soon as they let me know if title and URL changes mean you have to get a new number.)

One last thought: while an ISSN does not automatically protect your content, it does create identification for it that is registered with the Library of Congress. If I were going to sue someone for appropriating and profiting from my content, which is copyrighted the second I write it, I'd like to have that content registered under my name somewhere as a point of reference. A URL can bought by or sold to anyone, but once assigned, an ISSN is permanent.

You (or, in the event you belong to a group blog, the person designated as the blog publisher) have to apply for the ISSN, but here in the U.S. there is no fee involved. To get started, go to the Library of Congress's U.S. ISSN center to read more (you can now even apply for an ISSN online.) As an eco-friendly move they're now e-mailing ISSN numbers as they are assigned to applicants. so be sure to give them a good e-mail addy for you. If you reside outside the U.S., you can apply to either the national ISSN center in your country or (if your country doesn't have a center) the ISSN International Centre in Paris.

Related links:

The Library of Congress's ISSN FAQ page.

Phase I of KBart ~ Knowledge Bases and Related Tools can be read in .pdf format here