In the Federal Register of July 12, 1978, the United States Postal Service announced a final ruling for "Identification Statements in Second-Class and Controlled Circulation Publications." Included in the ruling was a requirement that publishers print an in-house identification number developed by the USPS. As a result of the public comments on the ruling, the USPA agreed to permit publishers to use the ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) rather than the USPA number if the ISSN had been provided to the USPS for entry into its own database. Since that time, the National Serials Data Program (NSDP), the U.S. national center responsible for administration of the ISSN, has provided ISSNs to the Postal Service on an ongoing basis.

NSDP provides ISSNs to the USPS as an integral part of the processing of applications for second-class mailing permits. Re-entry applications filed when publishers change titles, frequencies, or places of publication, and notes of changes in mailing permit status are also routed through NSDP.

If it has not previously done so, NSDP assigns an ISSN and authenticates the CONSER record for those serials likely to be collected or processed by other users with large files of serials. The assignment process includes entering the USPS control number in field 032 of the record for title with authorized second class permits. The ISSNs are reported to the USPS for both new and existing assignments.

USPS personnel include the ISSN in the authorizations to mail at second-class rates that retransmitted to the post offices where the serials are mailed. The local postmasters communicate the ISSN to the serial publishers, who are then required to print the ISSN in order to fulfill the requirements of their second-class mailing permits.

See also:

A6. CONSER-Based Programs and Projects