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The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is a unique identifier most often associated with popular magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers. The scope of ISSN, however, includes many types of grey literature. This article will discuss and provide examples of the types of grey literature in scope for ISSN and describe the bibliographic metadata about these resources created to support each ISSN assignment. Benefits to the originators of grey literature that result from ISSN assignments are highlighted, especially the valuable exposure that the resources gain from the bibliographic records that are created to document ISSN assignments and are included in multiple international databases. Benefits that accrue to the ISSN Network from the inclusion of grey literature will also be covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects the discussion of metadata challenges faced by the scholarly communications community at this year’s NASIG conference. Exploring the potential opportunities for the enrichment of metadata, we consider the evolving role of the metadata librarian and review opportunities for all librarians to contribute to an important new collaboration for the wider benefit of scholarly communications. The Metadata 2020 collaboration was the context for the session, which focused on barriers to progress and the role of nonbibliographic metadata in the evolution of library services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on international serials and electronic resource management which includes library schools, continuing education and library-orientated organizations. The article also discusses the awards and grants given by EBSCO Information Services and the recommendations provided by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO).

Building a library’s collection requires more than collecting print materials and shelving them in the stacks. The growth of e-books and e-serials over the past decade has been phenomenal. Given the scope of its collection building, the Library of Congress (LOC) has been required to actively pursue the acquisition and management of e-books and e-serials in its permanent collection. This article surveys how the LOC has taken advantage of existing structures and how it has pursued new paths to succeed in this undertaking. Finally, it lays out some of the outstanding problems that the LOC faces as it attempts to build a digital equivalent to its print collection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A study of job advertisements for technical services librarian positions provided insight into critical aspects of the library profession, issues that affect the work life of academic librarians. A review of several hundred job ads with a focus on job titles revealed problems with the use of terminology and the actual conceptualization of positions. Based on the ads reviewed, libraries also appear to be raising their expectations for types of knowledge and skills required and personal qualities desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) has been the standard, eight-digit code used to identify newspapers, journals, magazines, and periodicals on all kinds of media—print and electronic—for the past 40 years. Periodically, the standard must be revised to allow it to accommodate new formats, changes in the publishing industry and information supply chain, and other developments in the information field. Regina Romano Reynolds, director of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress, describes the issues that the ISSN International Centre perceives as necessitating a revision of the standard and the likely next steps in the International Organization for Standardization standards revision process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Open Access publishing continues to grow, and it has profound implications for librarians in a variety of contexts. This report serves two functions. It provides background on Open Access publication of scholarly journals and the role of academic libraries in this movement. In particular, it examines the University of Lethbridge Journal Incubator as an example of library involvement in Open Access publication. The report also examines how hybrid journals, in an attempt to provide Open Access publication options in traditional subscription journals, have introduced a new discovery and access problem for libraries. While standards bodies have begun to address the problem, there are still many challenges when accessing open content in hybrid journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Deep Dive into KBART preconference workshop provided a comprehensive overview of the National Information Standards Organization Knowledge Bases and Related Tools (KBART) Phase II Recommended Practice (http://www.niso.org/publications/rp/rp-9–2014/). The workshop was divided into four sections. The first provided an overview of the background, purpose, and value of KBART to all members of the information supply chain. The next section focused on the basic guidelines for effective exchange of metadata with knowledgebases, including method of exchange, data format, file naming conventions, and frequency of exchange. The remaining two sections of the workshop addressed the correct use of KBART data fields, first in relation to serials and then to monographs. Through classroom instruction, interactive quizzes, and hands-on exercises, the workshop provided in-depth coverage of all KBART data elements, with special focus on many of the most frequently asked questions about the recommended practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is a preliminary report on the work of the Canadian Linked Data Initiative (CLDI), a collaboration between five of Canada’s largest research libraries, Library and Archives Canada, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, and Canadiana.org. Although still in its nascent stage, participating institutions are working together to advance the technical services divisions of our libraries in the area of linked data. Project working groups are making progress in five main areas: grant funding, digital collections, education and training, legacy metadata enhancement, and in the evaluation and adaptation of Bibliographic Framework Transition Initiative tools. By working across geographic and institutional boundaries, the CLDI aims to chart a path to a new age of technical services, one based on the foundation of Linked Open Data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The institutional repository (IR) can provide a system for digitizing print serials for online delivery and a way to archive and preserve serial content already available online. Organizing serial content in IRs varies based on the architecture of each repository. In this presentation, Kay Teel of the Metadata Department at Stanford University Libraries discussed different approaches IRs use to manage serial content. She gave examples illustrating the inconsistent treatment of serials in the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR) and described a conceptual model for serials in the SDR to provide an improved user experience finding and accessing digital serial content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metadata 2020 is a collaboration that aims to facilitate the work of all parties in scholarly communications to consistently improve metadata to enhance discoverability, facilitate new services, and create efficiencies with the ultimate goal of accelerating scholarly discovery. Almost a year after launch, Metadata 2020 has gained considerable ground in gathering information from multiple community groups. These community groups focus on metadata challenges and opportunities – finding ways to enhance metadata and finding new solutions. Now that Metadata 2020 has received feedback and stories from all sectors of the research and scholarly communication cycle, the group is targeting crucial points where metadata needs to work across all groups in order for a mature metadata model to become a useful reality. Juliane Schneider, Lead Data Curator at Harvard Catalyst, Clinical and Translational Science Center, provided an update on the Metadata 2020 project and led a roundtable discussion format where audience participants talked about challenges and offered recommendations for improvement to the Metadata 2020 project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on how serials information for journal articles is presented based on a sampling of institutional repository platforms at a variety of institutions. Since metadata on journal articles in institutional repositories can often be incomplete and haphazard, not only due to the difficulty of entering the metadata in the first place, but due to the difficulty of adapting existing metadata schemes to represent a journal article accurately, how can libraries increase the discoverability of these individual articles from a wide variety of journals? By examining existing metadata schemes and how they are used to represent articles currently in institutional repositories, libraries can look for a way forward to better represent articles though adapting schemas, exploring possibilities for standardization of metadata for articles, and promoting good practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Troubleshooting electronic resource linking issues can seem to be an insurmountable task—so many resources, so little time. Using interlibrary loan (ILL) data on requests for materials available online, the electronic resources staff at the Samford University Library detected problems with the implementation of their new link resolver. This data also provided a window into some systemic issues within the metadata of certain sources and the link resolver knowledgebase. In addition to helping us improve linking for our users, the establishment of a workflow for communicating cancelled ILL transaction data on an ongoing basis has also improved the communication between electronic resources staff and the ILL department regarding the overall linking process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This session reported the findings of a comparative analysis of how e-books are represented across multiple platforms. In this session, the presenters shared the results of a study that examined how a sample of academic e-books are represented across different platforms. Topics of analysis included: the inclusion of various metadata, the visual presentation of e-book content, and variations in search results. This presentation also focused on the similarities and differences between e-book representation and what impact these various representations might have on users of academic e-books. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Implementing discovery tools and getting them to work with existing library services often leaves very little time for their promotion and for the thoughtful, ongoing evaluation and curation of their content. However, the expectations and experiences that users have about discovery tools are often directly related to the content and the way that content is described. In our efforts to work with vendors to resolve the underlying business issues that prevent us from having all of the metadata for our resources included in our discovery tools, we may have lost sight of our role in curating and evaluating the usefulness of the content that is already included in them. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For e-resource librarians, maintaining e-book and e-journal holdings within electronic resource management systems is a labor intensive and often manual process. In 2014, with the aim of saving library staff valuable time and effort, the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC) launched a service to provide automated holdings management within the WorldCat knowledgebase. For a select group of content providers, including some of the largest e-book aggregators, holdings information can be populated and updated automatically within the knowledgebase without intervention from library staff. At the University of Toronto Libraries, we conducted a study to assess the accuracy and efficiency of these automated holdings management services. This presentation outlines the results of the study and provides suggestions for further improvement to the current services offered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the presentations at the Great Ideas Showcase in the 30th annual conference of the North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG ) held in Washington D.C. on May 27-30, 2015. These include Deconstructing the Core Competencies to Build the Digital Future by Stacy Baggett, Reimagining Serials: Small Steps Toward a Linked Data Future by Kevin Balster and the Impact of Research on Public Policy by Sara Rouhi.