I have been in communication with Advanstar, publisher of Patient Care
about the numbering situation and about whether it is their intention to
publish several separate periodicals instead of the single periodical,
Patient Care, that they publish at present.  Answers to the questions I
raised will determine whether separate ISSN and records are needed.  At
present, the publication seems to be in transition and that transition has
resulted in the numbering that has been causing problems and concerns. One
important consideration is that the subject-specific topics are not yet
stabilized. In other words, some topics (now expressed as subtitles or
part titles) may never appear again, and new ones may be introduced.

I am scheduled to participate in a conference call on Monday, June 11 with
several Advanstar managers and I hope we can arrive at some solutions.  It
may be that an interim resolution is needed for now until publication
plans become more finalized.  In the meantime, I would suggest that no new
records for the separate parts be created and those that are in save files
remain there for now.  I know that check-in is a problem and that the lack
of a resolution is causing even more problems but I think it's better to
make a decision with input from the publisher rather than to go in a
direction that might have to be reversed later.

I'll let you know the outcome of Monday's meeting as quickly as possible.

Regina 	R. Reynolds                     email: rrey@loc.gov
Head, National Serials Data Program     voice: (202) 707-6379
Library of Congress                     fax    (202) 707-6333
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.           ISSN Web page: lcweb.loc.gov/issn/
Washington, D.C. 20540-4160