ISSN Montenegro
Member since 2005
The National Library of Montenegro has been the host of the National ISSN Center for over 20 years. NC MNE started functioning independently in April 2004, with only one cataloger who will hopefully retire from this position in 5 years to leave this exciting and rewarding job to a young colleague. Thanks to the National Library of Serbia, the cataloger was trained to create records and ever since has maintained close collaboration with all ex-YU national centers, esp. Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian, based on common issues, languages and similarity of continuing resources. At the very beginning, the local database had some 200 records, growing gradually to reach the number of 2,070 in January 2025. Montenegro is a very small publishing market, producing around 1,000 books and 10-15 serials annually.
The most significant activity undertaken by the NC was the retrospective assignment to early very old, rare and damaged Montenegrin serials, completed in 2021-2024, where ISSN assignment increases visibility of digital versions of back volumes of the most frequently requested material, and above all, facilitates cataloguing in the regional cobiss system. Some of these titles have been digitized by the Library's Center for Digitization and made accessible at: https://www.dlib.me/me/periodika, however, most of the work is to be done soon as the hard copies are rare and deteriorating. Using ISSN portal search makes it easy to identify the oldest and most precious collection of 185 serials which ceased publication before the end of the WWI, out of which only 28 have been digitized by national institutions (National Library and a few public libraries). Digitized Montenegrin newspaper pages are indispensable source of various facts and events and the only preserved original testimonials revealing the past of our, for many decades, war-torn country.
ISSN cataloguer Vesna Vučković has had the pleasure of meeting the ISSN colleagues in person on several occasions, in Sarajevo, Lisbon, Cairo… Each meeting with IC staff and librarians from all over the world inspired professional growth, creativity and the sense of deep connection to a network of great professionals and generous people.
