The Joint Steering Committee for Development of Resource Description and Access (RDA) has invited the German National Library to prepare a discussion paper on how RDA might accommodate bibliographic descriptions of serials based on the latest available issue. Such descriptions in RDA are currently based on the earliest available issue. Three possible implementation scenarios for accommodation of such descriptions in RDA are examined: (1) an �optimal� implementation in which a single record could be used to generate descriptions and access points based on either approach; (2) an �intermediate� implementation in which records created in a system employing one approach could be used to generate access points based on either approach and so exchanged with a system employing the other approach; and (3) a �minimal� implementation in which RDA would support either approach, but records could not be easily exchanged with a system employing the other approach.