ISSN for Serials Available on e-Readers and Other Mobile Devices: Issues and Challenges

Serials of all kinds including popular magazines, scholarly journals, and series of e-books are becoming increasingly available in formats designed for use on mobile devices. A provisional policy regarding assignment of ISSN to these resources was approved by ISSN directors in October 2011. This article describes the new policy along with the issues and challenges the ISSN Network faces in creating ISSN assignments and metadata for these new kinds of publications. This paper will present 1) an overview of the landscape of serials for mobile devices as seen from the perspective of the U.S. ISSN Center, 2) the provisional ISSN policy for assigning ISSN to serials available on mobile devices and issues raised by the policy, 3) an examination of some of the metadata issues, and 4) examples of records and screen shots of a sample publication.