International Cooperation
International Cooperation in Bibliographic Services
The International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) Network is an international organization that assigns and maintains the ISSN, a numeric code used as an identifier of serial publication throughout the world. The ISSN National Center of each member country assigns ISSNs to domestically issued publications, and sends the bibliographic data to the ISSN International Centre in Paris for registration.
The NDL has served as the Japanese National Centre for ISSN since 1975, by allocating ISSNs to serial publications issued in Japan, and creating bibliographic information about them.
The NDL also cooperates with UNESCO in compiling the Index Translationum (international bibliography of translations), providing bibliographic information on books translated and published in Japan.
In the mutual collaboration with OCLC (Online Computer Library Center, Inc.), the NDL globally provides JAPAN/MARC records via WorldCat, a bibliographic database operated and maintained by the OCLC.
The NDL sends one of us to the Bibliography Section of IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) as a Standing Committee member and is involved in international bibliographic control by participating in the annual conference and in other ways.