On May 22, 2008, at 9:12 AM, Melinda Shore wrote: > On 5/22/08 8:51 AM, "John C Klensin" <john-ietf@xxxxxxx> wrote: >> Indeed, another way of looking at this question is that deciding >> to register an ISSN for the RFC series really does not preclude >> anything else (including, were we so inclined, putting DOIs on >> each RFC) and we should therefore be asking "ISSN or not ISSN" >> with all questions about other sorts of identifiers and >> cataloging being viewed as separate. > > I think the cataloging question is probably central to the > question of whether or not to bother with an ISSN. I don't > think an ISSN has any practical value other than that it > increases the likelihood that LC will catalog the series/ > serial and that libraries will then start sticking it into > their electronic holdings. Now, I'm not sure I see an > advantage to getting libraries to pick up RFCs given how > trivial it is to find them online, but that's another matter. > Another advantage is discrimination in the event that some other > serial publication is also called "Request for Comments," but > again I'm not sure that's an actual problem. But mainly, > getting an ISSN gets the series into the library system. It is easy to find RFC's now, but it may not be in a century. This may seem silly, but I think that RFCs will still have relevance in a century and, having experience searching for 100+ year old astronomical publications and data, in my opinion, RFC's need to be cataloged in libraries. Libraries have running code for the maintenance of intellectual property over centuries; the IETF does not. Regards Marshall > > > Melinda > > _______________________________________________ > IETF mailing list > IETF@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf