The Bear's Den Info Files: ISBN Numbers

Now, Kirk & Spock tried to get a "Piece of the Action" (loved that episode) by confusing their captors (and the viewing audience) with Fizbin, but here we're talking about ISBN, pronounced the same way in common parlance.

"ISBN" stands for "International Standard Book Number", and is a number, not to be confused with the BarCode or UPC number: although the ISBN number of a book often appears to be PART of the BarCode, (seen posted along the top of the BarCode) they are NOT the same as the UPC number.

The ISBN number CAN be included in the information embedded in the BarCode graphic upon request; this makes for easier inventory control by publishers, distributors and retailers who use BarCode scanner systems.

There are over 160 ISBN Agencies worldwide. One agency per country is designated to assign ISBNs for the publishers and self-publishers located in that country, and that country only.

The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes. If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately. This can have implications for doing business in the publishing industry supply chain.

ISBNs are assigned to publishers and self-publishers as follows: in blocks of 1 or 10 or 100 or 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 numbers. Their purpose is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors. ISBNs are a powerful and important tool to publishing industry. When participating in the ISBN standard, publishers and self-publishers are required to report all information about titles to which they have assigned ISBNs.

In general, books of most all kinds, pamphlets, maps and such require an ISBN unless they are extremely specialized/unique publications. Comic books, since they are serials, do not get ISBNs. However, graphic novels are eligible for ISBNs. Different media formats of the same book will each require their own ISBN: A hardcover has a different ISBN than the trade paperback release or the mass market paperback or the e-book etc

Books in a series won't have sequential ISBNs because they are released months or years apart, and the publisher is using their ISBN allotment block in the meantime on other books being released during that interval.

New Editions vs. Reprints

A reprint means more copies are being printed with no substantial changes. Perhaps a few typos are being fixed. A new ISBN is not required. However, a new edition means that there has been substantial change: content has been altered in a way that might make a customer complain that this was not the product that was expected. Or, text has been changed to add a new feature, such as a preface or appendix or additional content. Or, content has been revised. Or, the book has been redesigned. A new ISBN number would be required. Example: Demon Seed is a science fiction novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz first published in 1973,

and then completely rewritten and republished in 1997:

Each required a different ISBN identifier; although they shared the same title, author and basic storyline, the treatment of the storyline was quite different.

A bit of history:

In 1967, W. H. Smith (the largest single book retailer in Great Britain) implemented the Standard Book Numbering (SBN) system; its plan to move to a computerized warehouse numbering system for books it carried. In response, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee on Documentation (TC 46) set up a working party to investigate the possibility of adapting the British SBN for international use. A meeting was held in London in 1968 with representatives from Denmark, France, Germany, Eire, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and an observer from UNESCO. Other countries contributed written suggestions and expressions of interest. A report of the meeting was circulated to all ISO member countries. Comments on this report and subsequent proposals were considered at meetings of the working party held in Berlin and Stockholm in 1969. As a result of the thinking at all of these meetings, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was approved as an ISO standard in 1970.

Since then, practically all printed books have been assigned an ISBN number, and this has become an integral and valuable part of the printing/publishing industry.

Parts of the ISBN:

For more than thirty years, ISBNs were 10 digits long. On January 1, 2007 the ISBN system switched to a 13-digit format. Now all ISBNs are 13-digits long. A 10-digit ISBN cannot be converted to 13-digits merely by placing three digits in front of the 10-digit number. There is an algorithm that frequently results in a change of the last digit of the ISBN.

The four parts of a standard 10 digit ISBN are as follows:

1. Group or country identifier which identifies a national or geographic grouping of publishers;

2. Publisher identifier which identifies a particular publisher within a group;

3. Title identifier which identifies a particular title or edition of a title;

4. Check digit is the single digit at the end of the ISBN which validates the ISBN.

The five parts of a standard 13 digit ISBN are as follows:

1. The current ISBN-13 will be prefixed by "978"

2. Group or country identifier which identifies a national or geographic grouping of publishers;

3. Publisher identifier which identifies a particular publisher within a group;

4. Title identifier which identifies a particular title or edition of a title;

5. Check digit is the single digit at the end of the ISBN which validates the ISBN.

Now, the last part, the Check Digit, sometimes appears as an upper case X; The check digit is always a single digit. However, when a publisher determines that the check digit (arising from a complicated calculation using the previous numbers that I'm frankly baffled by) 'weighs out' to be a 10, they substitute the two digit 10 with the single digit Roman numeral X.

Oh, and serial publications like monthly magazines get a different identifier number, an ISSN...more on that in another post.

Now, I know that some of this stuff I've been posting is pretty dry and somewhat esoteric, but occassionally a collector or dealer needs some of this info to properly research a book/magazine in order to be sure they're getting the right one (is that the one I thought it was? Or was I thinking about this one. Which one did my customer want? This edition, or the re-written new edition?)