The IETF Trust is considering applying to the U.S. Library of Congress to obtain an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) for the RFC Series and would like community input to inform its decision. The Trust may take up this matter on June 11th. An ISSN is applied to serials - print or non-print publications issued in parts. A serial is expected to continue indefinitely. Serials include magazines, newspapers, annuals, journals, proceedings, transactions of societies, and monographic series. Other SDOs, such as the IEEE, have obtained ISSNs for their publications. A single ISSN uniquely identifies a title regardless of language or country in which published, without the burden of a complex bibliographic description. The ISSN itself has no significance other than the unique identification of a serial. The Trust believes there are advantages to indentifying the RFC Series with an ISSN. Among them, 1. Make reference to the series compact and globally unique; 2. Make the series, and individual RFCs, easier to reference in some contexts; 3. Results in accurate citing of serials by scholars, researchers, abstracters, and librarians; 4. ISSN registrations are maintained in an international data base and are made available in the ISSN Register online According to the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/issn/, for serials available only in online versions, the ISSN should appear on the title screen or home page and/or in the masthead or other areas where information about publisher, frequency, subscribing, copyright, etc. is given. There is no cost associated with obtaining ISSNs. Ray Pelletier IAD Trustee _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf