International Standard Book Number

An ISBN-13, 978-3-16-148410-0, represented as an EAN-13 barcode

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique, numerical commercial book identifier, based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code. It was created in 1966, by the United Kingdom bookseller and stationer, W.H. Smith, and others. The 10-digit International Standard Book Number (ISBN) format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and published as an international standard, ISO 2108, in 1970. However, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the UK until 1974. Currently, the ISO TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.

As of January 1, 2007, International Standard Book Numbers have been of 13 digits, compatible with Bookland EAN-13s. A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) identifies periodical publications such as magazines.

The ISBN is an important book identifier for libraries, book sellers, and users for it can help to search for specific editions and works that may not be identifiable by a conventional author or title search. The ISBN is an important global standardization for the information era.

Overview

An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned after January 1, 2007, and 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. An International Standard Book Number consists of 4 or 5 parts:

The parts of a 10-digit ISBN and the corresponding EAN-13 and barcode. Note the different check digits in each. The part of the EAN-13 labeled "EAN" is the Bookland country code

1. The prefix; a three digit number made available by GS1, a global organization to design global standarads; current available prefix are 978 or 979; further allocation is possible when needs arise in the future
2. The group identifier, (language-sharing country group)
3. The publisher code
4. The item number
5. A checksum character or check digit

The ISBN parts may be of different lengths, and usually are separated with hyphens or spaces.

The group identifier is a 1 to 5 digit number. The single digit group identifiers are: 0 or 1 for English-speaking countries; 2 for French-speaking countries; 3 for German-speaking countries; 4 for Japanese; 5 for Russian, and 7 for Chinese. An example 5 digit group identifier is 99936, for Bhutan. The original standard book number (SBN) had no group identifier, but affixing a zero (0) as prefix to a 9-digit SBN creates a valid 10-digit ISBN. Group identifiers form a prefix code; compare with country calling codes.

The national ISBN agency assigns the publisher number; the publisher selects the item number. Generally, a book publisher is not required to assign an ISBN, nor for a book to display its number (except in China; see below), however, most book stores only handle ISBN-bearing merchandise.

A listing of all the 628,000 assigned publisher codes is published, and can be ordered in book form (€558, US$915.46). The web site of the international ISBN agency does not offer any free method of looking up publisher codes.

Publishers receive blocks of ISBNs, with larger blocks allotted to publishers expecting to need them; a small publisher may receive ISBNs of one or more digits for the group identifier code, several digits for the publisher, and a single digit for the individual items. Once that block of ISBNs is used, the publisher may receive another block of ISBNs, with a different publisher number. Consequently, a publisher may have different allotted publisher numbers. There also may be more than one group identifier used in a country. This might occur if a popular identifier has used up all of its numbers. The cited list of identifiers shows this has happened in China and in more than a dozen other countries.

By using variable block lengths, a large publisher will have few digits allocated for the publisher number and many digits allocated for titles; likewise countries publishing much will have few allocated digits for the group identifier, and many for the publishers and titles. Here are some sample ISBN-10 codes, illustrating block length variations.

ISBN	Country or area	Publisher
99921-58-10-7	Qatar	NCCAH, Doha
9971-5-0210-0	Singapore	World Scientific
960-425-059-0	Greece	Sigma Publications
80-902734-1-6	Czech Republic; Slovakia	Taita Publishers
1-84356-028-3	United Kingdom	Simon Wallenberg Press
0-684-84328-5	English-speaking area	Scribner
0-8044-2957-X	English-speaking area	Frederick Ungar
0-85131-041-9	English-speaking area	J. A. Allen & Co.
0-943396-04-2	English-speaking area	Willmann–Bell
0-9752298-0-X	English-speaking area	KT Publishing

Bookland (imaginary place)

Bookland is an imaginary place created in the 1980s in order to reserve an EAN Country Code for books, regardless of country of origin, so that the EAN space can catalog books by ISBN rather than maintaining a redundant parallel numbering system.

From the creation of the ISBN until January 1, 2007, the ISBN was a 9-digit number followed by a modulo 11 checksum that was either a digit or the letter X. A Bookland EAN was generated by concatenating the Bookland "country code" 978, the digits of the book's ISBN other than the checksum, and an EAN checksum digit.

Since parts of the 10-character ISBN space are nearly full, all books published from 2007 on are expected to use the 13-digit ISBN-13, which is identical to the Bookland EAN. At least one new "country code" (979) has been assigned to Bookland for expansion; books numbered with prefixes other than the initial 978 will not be mappable to 10-character ISBNs.

Check digit in ISBN-10

The 2001 edition of the official manual of the International ISBN Agency says that the ISBN-10 check digit—which is the last digit of the ten-digit ISBN—must range from 0 to 10 (the symbol X is used instead of 10) and must be such that the sum of all the ten digits, each multiplied by the integer weight, descending from 10 to 1, is a multiple of the number 11. Modular arithmetic is convenient for calculating the check digit using modulus 11. Each of the first nine digits of the ten-digit ISBN—excluding the check digit, itself—is multiplied by a number in a sequence from 10 to 2, and the remainder of the sum, with respect to 11, is computed. The resulting remainder, plus the check digit, must equal 11; therefore, the check digit is 11 minus the remainder of the sum of the products.

For example, the check digit for an ISBN-10 of 0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

s = 0×10 + 3×9 + 0×8 + 6×7 + 4×6 + 0×5 + 6×4 + 1×3 + 5×2
  =    0 +  27 +   0 +  42 +  24 +   0 +  24 +   3 +  10
  = 130
130 / 11 = 11 remainder 9
11 - 9 = 2

Thus, the check digit is 2, and the complete sequence is ISBN 0-306-40615-2.

Formally, the check digit calculation is:

$x_{10}\equiv 11-(10x_{1}+9x_{2}+8x_{3}+7x_{4}+6x_{5}+5x_{6}+4x_{7}+3x_{8}+2x_{9})\,{\bmod {1}}1$

If the result is 11, a "0" should be substituted; if 10, an "X" should be used.

The two most common errors in handling an ISBN (for example, typing or writing it) are an altered digit or the transposition of adjacent digits. Since 11 is a prime number, the ISBN check digit method ensures that these two errors will always be detected. However, if the error occurs in the publishing house and goes undetected, the book will be issued with an invalid ISBN. For example I'saka: A Sketch Grammar of a Language of North-Central New Guinea published by Pacific Linguistics with ISBN 0-85883-554-4.

Occasionally publishers erroneously assign an ISBN to more than one title—the first edition of The Ultimate Alphabet and The Ultimate Alphabet Workbook have the same ISBN, 0-8050-0076-3. Conversely, books are published with several ISBNs: A German, second-language edition of Emil und die Detektive has the ISBN 87-23-90157-8 in Denmark, 0-8219-1069-8 for the United States version, 91-21-15628-X for Sweden, 0-85048-548-7, in England, and 3-12-675495-3 for Germany.

Alternative calculation

The ISBN-10 check-digit can also be calculated in a slightly easier way:

$x_{10}=(1x_{1}+2x_{2}+3x_{3}+4x_{4}+5x_{5}+6x_{6}+7x_{7}+8x_{8}+9x_{9})\,{\bmod {1}}1$

This gives exactly the same result as the formula above.

$x_{10}=\sum _{i=1}^{9}ix_{i}\,{\bmod {1}}1$.

This finds the check digit for a 32 digit ISBN, using summation notation.

Check digit in ISBN-13

The 2005 edition of the International ISBN Agency's official manual covering some ISBNs issued from January 2007, describes how the 13-digit ISBN check digit is calculated.

The calculation of an ISBN-13 check digit begins with the first 12 digits of the thirteen-digit ISBN (thus excluding the check digit itself). Each digit, from left to right, is alternately multiplied by 1 or 3, then those products are summed modulo 10 to give a value ranging from 0 to 9. Subtracted from 10, that leaves a result from 1 to 10. A zero (0) replaces a ten (10), so, in all cases, a single check digit results.

For example, the ISBN-13 check digit of 978-0-306-40615-? is calculated as follows:

s = 9×1 + 7×3 + 8×1 + 0×3 + 3×1 + 0×3 + 6×1 + 4×3 + 0×1 + 6×3 + 1×1 + 5×3
  =   9 +  21 +   8 +   0 +   3 +   0 +   6 +  12 +   0 +  18 +   1 +  15
  = 93
93 / 10 = 9 remainder 3
10 – 3 
= 7 

Thus, the check digit is 7, and the complete sequence is ISBN 978-0-306-40615-7.

Formally, the ISBN-13 check digit calculation is:

$x_{13}=\left[10-{\big (}{[x_{1}+3x_{2}+x_{3}+3x_{4}+\cdots +x_{11}+3x_{12}]{\bmod {1}}0}{\big )}\right]{\bmod {1}}0$

This check system—similar to the UPC check digit formula—does not catch all errors of adjacent digit transposition. Specifically, if the difference between two adjacent digits is 5, the check digit will not catch their transposition. For instance, the above example allows this situation with the 6 followed by a 1. The correct order contributes 3×6+1×1 = 19 to the sum; while, if the digits are transposed (1 followed by a 6), the contribution of those two digits will be 3×1+1×6 = 9. However, 19 and 9 are congruent modulo 10, and so produce the same, final result: both ISBNs will have a check digit of 7. The ISBN-10 formula uses the prime modulus 11 which avoids this blind spot, but requires more than the digits 0-9 to express the check digit.

EAN format used in barcodes, and upgrading

Currently, the barcodes on a book's back cover (or inside a mass-market paperback book's front cover) are EAN-13 (European Article Number 13; barcodes used worldwide for marking retail goods); they may have a separate barcode encoding five digits for the currency and the recommended retail price. The number "978," the Bookland "country code," is prepended to the ISBN in the barcode data, and the check digit is recalculated according to the EAN13 formula (modulo 10, 1x, and 3x weighting on alternate digits).

Partly because of a pending shortage in certain ISBN categories, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) migrated to a thirteen-digit ISBN (ISBN-13); the process began January 1, 2005 and was to conclude January 1, 2007. Thirteen-digit ISBNs are prefixed with "978" (and the check digit recalculated); as the "978" ISBN supply is exhausted, the "979" prefix will be introduced. This is expected to occur more rapidly outside the United States; originally, "979" was the "Musicland" code for musical scores with an ISMN, however, ISMN codes will differ visually as they begin with an "M" letter; the bar code represents the "M" as a zero (0), and for checksum purposes it will count as a 3.

Publisher identification code numbers are unlikely to be the same in the "978" and "979" ISBNs, like-wise, there is no guarantee that language area code numbers will be the same. Moreover, the ten-digit ISBN check digit generally is not the same as the thirteen-digit ISBN check digit. Because the EAN/UCC-13 is part of the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) system (that includes the EAN/UCC-14, the UPC-12, and the EAN-8), it is expected that ISBN-generating software should accommodate fourteen-digit ISBNs.

Barcode format compatibility is maintained, because (aside from the group breaks) the ISBN-13 barcode format is identical to the EAN barcode format of existing ISBN-10s. So, migration to an EAN-based system allows booksellers the use of a single numbering system for both books and non-book products that is compatible with existing ISBN-based data, with only minimal changes to information technology systems. Hence, many booksellers (for example, Barnes & Noble) migrated to EAN barcodes as early as March 2005. Although many American and Canadian booksellers have been able to read EAN-13 barcodes before 2005, most general retailers could not read them. The upgrading of the UPC barcode system to full EAN-13, in 2005, eased migration to the ISBN-13 in North America. Moreover, by January 2007, most large book publishers added ISBN-13 barcodes alongside the ten-digit ISBN barcodes of books published before January 2007.

Use of the ISBN check digit

Publishers and libraries have varied policies about the use of the ISBN check digit. Publishers sometimes fail to check the correspondence of a book title and its ISBN before publishing it; that failure causes book identification problems for libraries, booksellers, and readers.

Most libraries and booksellers display the book record for an invalid ISBN issued by the publisher. The Library of Congress catalogue contains books published with invalid ISBNs, which it usually tags with the phrase "Canceled ISBN." However, book-ordering systems such as Amazon.com will not search for a book if an invalid ISBN is entered to its search engine.

Other international identification number

The followings are some identification numbers similar to the ISBN.

International Standard Serial Number

An International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is a unique eight-digit number used to identify a print or electronic periodical publication. The ISSN system was adopted as international standard ISO 3297 in 1975. The ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.

International Standard Music Number

The International Standard Music Number or ISMN (ISO 10957) is a ten-character alphanumeric identifier for printed music developed by ISO. It consists of four blocks: The prefix M to distinguish it from ISBNs, a block to identify the publisher, another to identify the item and one final check digit. The TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.

A publication may be assigned both an ISBN and an ISMN. Unlike the ISBN, the ISMN does not segregate publishers by country.

International Standard Audiovisual Number

International Standard Audiovisual Number (ISAN) is a unique identifier for audiovisual works and related versions, similar to ISBN for books. It was developed within an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) TC46/SC9 working group. ISAN is managed and run by ISAN-IA.

The ISAN standard (ISO standard 15706:2002 & ISO 15706-2) is recommended or required as the audiovisual identifier of choice for producers, studios, broadcasters, Internet media providers and video games publishers who need to encode, track, and distribute video in a variety of formats. It provides a unique, internationally recognized and permanent reference number for each audiovisual work and related versions registered in the ISAN system.

ISAN identifies works throughout their entire life cycle from conception, to production, to distribution and consumption. Its core strength lies in its universal benefits and long-term stability.

ISANs can be incorporated in both digital and physical media, such as theatrical release prints, DVDs, publications, advertising, marketing materials and packaging, as well as licensing contracts to uniquely identify works.

See also

• International Organization for Standardization
• International Standard Serial Number

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• International ISBN Agency. Homepage. Retrieved October 13, 2008.
• International Standard Book Number and the Librarian. New York: ISBN Publicity Committee, 1970.
• ISBN Users' Manual: The International Standard Book Number System. Berlin: Internat. ISBN Agency, 2001. ISBN 9783880530751.
• Koltay, Emery. 1999. "Ready Reference." Bowker Annual Library and Book Trade Almanac 44 (1999): 571-618. ISBN 0-8352-4222-6.
• Schmierer, Helen F., and Howard Pasternack. Study of Current and Potential Uses of International Standard Book Number in United States Libraries: Final Report to the Committee for the Coordination of National Bibliographic Control. 1977.

External links

All links retrieved November 30, 2024.

• About the ISBN Standard
• ISO 2108:2005 at www.iso.org
• International ISBN Agency—coordinates and supervises the world-wide use of the ISBN system.

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