Uvolbert: New page: Category:Publishing Terms The '''International Standard Book Number''' (ISBN) is a unique book identifier. Publishers don't have to assign an ISBN to a book, but it makes book trad...

2008-07-21T12:02:28Z

New page: Category:Publishing Terms The '''International Standard Book Number''' (ISBN) is a unique book identifier. Publishers don't have to assign an ISBN to a book, but it makes book trad...

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[[Category:Publishing Terms]]
The '''International Standard Book Number''' (ISBN) is a unique book identifier. [[Publishers]] don't have to assign an ISBN to a book, but it makes book trading much easier and most booksellers only handle titles with ISBNs.

The 10-digit '''ISBN''' was introduced as an international standard in 1970. It based on the ''Standard Book Numbering'' (SBN) in the UK of 1966 and added the language-speaking country identifier to their 9-digit.

== ISBN-10 ==
[[Image:ISBN MB 1970.jpg|frame|right|Mills & Boon ISBN 1970]]
The parts of the 10-digit ISBN ('''ISBN-10''') are:
; A = the language-speaking country identifier
It tells which language is spoken in the country the publisher comes from. In this case 0 for English. Others are:
: 1 - English
: 2 - French
: 3 - German
: 4 - Japanese
: 5 - Russian
: 7 - Chinese
: 8 + second digit - Spanish (84), Portuguese (85) and Italian (88)
; B = publisher code
The national ISBN agency assigns a code to every publisher of its country. In this case 263 for [[Mills and Boon|Mills & Boon]]. Together with the language-speaking country identifier it is the [[ISBN Prefix]] of the [[Publishers|publisher]], in this case 0-263.
; C = item number
It is the [[Publishers|publisher's]] number for the book, in this case 71164.
; D = check digit
It is a checksum with a very complicated calculation, in this case 1. If this number isn't correct Amazon.com won't find the book.

== ISBN-13 ==
[[Image:ISBN MB 1987.jpg|frame|right|Mills & Boon, barcode of 1987 with EAN-13 and price]]
Since January 2007 the '''ISBN-13''' is used following the ''European Article Number'' (EAN) which was used by European [[Publishers|publishers]] for a long time.
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[[Image:ISBN MB 2007.jpg|frame|right|Mills & Boon, barcode of 2007]]
It is a 978 or 979 in front of the ISBN-10 but with different check digit (the D in the first image). The ISBN-10 for this book is ISBN 0-263-85364-0.
<br clear="all" />
== Links ==
* [http://www.isbn.org/converterpub.asp ISBN-13 Online Convertor]
* [http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp US ISBN Agency]
* [http://www.books-by-isbn.com/ Books by ISBN]

== Double ISBNs ==
The early [[Harlequin Presents]] titles had an ISBN staring with 0-373-70 plus their series number + 500 plus the check digit. [[Janet Dailey]]'s [[A Land Called Deseret]] of 1979 has the ISBN 0-373-70826-2, being #326 of the series. In 1999 [[Harlequin]] used the ISBN again, now for [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0373708262/ref=nosim/103-3685024-2000659?n=283155 #826] of the [[Harlequin Superromance]] series. Thus Abe.com sometimes shows the [[Harlequin Superromance]] cover next to [[Janet Dailey]]'s book [http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=Janet+Dailey&bi=0&bx=off&ds=30&pn=Harlequin&sortby=7&sts=t&tn=A+Land+Called+Deseret&x=94&y=12&yrh=1979&yrl=1979 description].

International Standard Book Number - Revision history

Uvolbert: New page: Category:Publishing Terms The '''International Standard Book Number''' (ISBN) is a unique book identifier. Publishers don't have to assign an ISBN to a book, but it makes book trad...