It takes a world to review a standard like ISSN!

Abstract

The revision of an ISO standard is a very specific process involving experts from various backgrounds and countries. ISO Central Secretariat regularly issues guidelines and recommendations to help the convener of the working group and experts to proceed with the revision. The ISSN standard was last revised in 2007. This paper describes the current revision process of ISO 3297 -ISSN. Updating a standard as widely-used as the ISSN cannot be done without taking into account the changes that have occurred in the cataloguing environment and the technical context. Although ISO experts can share their insights at regular meetings, it is sometimes useful to call upon the community of users to get their input. A survey was thus conducted in 2018 about the views of ISSN users on the future of the standard. ISO experts have since reviewed the survey findings and come forward with proposals for the development of the next ISSN standard.