ISSN France
Member since 1976
The ISSN France Centre is hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale de France
First year of operation : 1975
Official date membership : 1976
Our mascot : the Bear
In French, the word for masthead is … Ours (or Bear). The bear or pressman was responsible for operating the press, and was so named for the impression of heaviness he gave when inking the forms.
In publishing today, it refers to a box usually located at the beginning or end of a serial, which lists the names and addresses of the publisher, and printer, and other collaborators involved in the production of the printed work.
The monkey or typographer is said to have been so named because of the rapid movements of his arms and hands, with which he composed the texts with the lead letters and distributed them in the cassettes once the print run was complete.
Our team : Agnès, Étienne, Isabelle, Marianne, Philippe
Years of experience (average number per staff member) : 23
Longest serving member of staff : Marianne Lacoste (43 years of service)
The first ISSN assigned by the French National Bibliography
Action syndicale SNI 43 = ISSN 0335-0002
The first ISSN assigned by the French ISSN Centre to an online resource
Cybersphere = ISSN 1262-3156 (assigned by Marianne Lacoste in May 1995)
France’s oldest daily newspaper
Le Journal de Paris (1777) = ISSN 1256-0375
Former directors
Marie-Louise Bossuat, Christine Girard, Dominique Brégiroux, Catherine Marandas, Françoise Boucheron, Michel Rival, Frédérique Flammerie de Lachapelle, Françoise Bourdon, Marianne Lacoste
Our worst enemies
Predatory publishers, quite understandably
One palatable anecdote
A publisher was very upset when his serial was assigned an ISSN ending with the X check digit on the grounds that X is a badge of infamy for porn magazines.
Testimonials
Modesty prevents us from reporting on the testimonials we have received over the years 😊
We are nevertheless quite proud of what has been achieved over the last 50 years.
