Have you considered using your time/energy/talents to bark up a different
tree?  Instead of racking your brains to come up with a workaround for this
quirk in your automated system, how about working with your system's
development and/or customer service team to change the system so that it
does not require something which sometimes cannot be supplied?

The system vendor will, one hopes, like the feedback from you toward
increasing utility of their product and decreasing the frustration of their
customers, and their other customers will love you for it!  You might also
contact other customers of that system vendor, and cooperatively request
such a change.

Good luck!

Lynne N. Stevens
Serials Coordinator
Lipscomb Library
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
lstevens@rmwc.edu
804 947-8133/FAX 804 947-8134

-----Original Message-----
From: Joanna Tousley-Escalante [mailto:J.Tousley@IAEA.ORG]
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2000 10:15 AM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Serials with no ISSN

We are in the throes of starting up a new library system and have
encountered a special problem that I believe is unique to this system.
For the OPAC to display the items received in the Serials Module, both the
BIB and the Serials record must contain the same ISSN.  Well and good,
except that we have a fair number of small newsletters and organization
publications that do not have an ISSN.

We are searching all possible sources for such a number, including OCLC,
Ulrich's, the ISSN database, et al.  But I can't help but wonder if we're
overlooking a possible source for more information.  One problem is that
often the title in hand being searched is a second language edition and if
staff know the English version of the title the ISSN can be identified.
But the sources we're using often do not provide that link between the
different versions.

Also, this system has a check that requires the ISSN to be a "valid" ISSN.
So for those titles with no ISSN we cannot just add a made up number.
Does anyone know how to make a valid ISSN that is not a correct ISSN?  I
have seen ISSN's in the $z subfield on OCLC, and I also have seen ISSN's
with X as the last digit.  Is there a way we can create a dummy ISSN
within the valid structure of the ISSN?

I'll welcome all of your suggestions for both issues as we are desperate
to get this system up and running fully in the shortest time possible.

Regards,
Joanna Tousley-Escalante
*       Head, TSU
*       VIC Library - IAEA
*       Vienna, Austria
*       j.tousley@iaea.org
*       431 2600-22624