Hi all: In a former life I published a Theatre Technology newsletter; we got an ISSN for it, as a result two libraries asked for copies of each issue so that they could archive them. That was the only effect. So, I agree with Melinda - it's worth getting an ISSN, and recognition from the Library world, but it's unlikely to have any other effect. Cheers, Nevil --------------------------------------------------------------------- Nevil Brownlee Computer Science Department | ITS Phone: +64 9 373 7599 x88941 The University of Auckland FAX: +64 9 373 7453 Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand On 22/05/2008, at 9:52 AM, Melinda Shore wrote: > On 5/21/08 5:39 PM, "Brian E Carpenter" > <brian.e.carpenter@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Possibly not, but there is still a crusty old world of academic >> publications with traditional reference styles out there, and an ISSN >> will make it much more straightforward to cite RFCs in peer-reviewed >> publications. +1 that it's a no-brainer. > > Hi - I'm really not trying to be a contrarian, just trying to > sort through the actual issues here. I don't think I've ever seen > a reference that included an ISSN. I've also never seen one > used as a subject header (index term) in cataloging. The only > time I've personally seen them used is as *descriptive* information > in a catalog (library catalog, publisher's catalog, etc.). I'm > sure someone will be happy to dig up a counterexample but > I do think they're pretty unusual. Really, what are the odds > that someone knows the ISSN but not the title or the author or > the publisher or ... ? > > The practical benefit I see here is getting the Library of > Congress (and who knows? maybe the British Library, etc.) > to catalog the series as a series, but again I'm unclear on > the practical benefit, since RFCs are incredibly easy to find > *as* RFCs; that is to say, by the information by which the > series will be cataloged and classified. > > I don't see any disadvantage to doing it, it's just that I > can't see much advantage, either. I figure we should just > go ahead and do it and not have any expectations that the > RFCs will be any more accessible, any more searchable, etc. > More like a change in status than a change in substance. > > Melinda _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf