What is an ISBN?

posted 04/28/03
My thanks go out to an avid library user (you know who you are) who requested this column. It's about one of those things that are such a basic part of my professional life that I forget not everyone knows about these things. I am talking about that most mysterious of acronyms, the ISBN.

If you have ever special-ordered a book through a bookstore, or if you have ever published a book yourself, you know about ISBNs. The letters stand for International Standard Book Number, and each edition of each title published has a unique one. 159 countries and territories are officially ISBN members, and the organization that has overall authority over the system is based in Berlin, Germany. Numbers for items published in the United States are assigned by a division of R.R. Bowker, the venerable publisher of Books In Print; their site at www.isbn.org is the source of everything you ever wanted to know about ISBNs and then some.

The Anatomy of an ISBN
The ISBN is always 10 characters, either 10 digits or 9 digits with an X on the end. Sometimes you will see hyphens in the ISBN, and sometimes not. The hyphens separate the digits into four segments of variable length, but the separations are not necessary to make the number unique.

The first part of the ISBN identifies a country, area or language area participating in the ISBN system. The second part of the ISBN, which may comprise up to 7 of the 10 digits, identifies a particular publisher, including its address. Next is the individual title identifier, and the last digit is a check digit of 1-10, with X substituting for 10.

Because some publishers are starting to run out of numbers, the ISBN standard will be converting to a 13-digit system in 2005, adding 978 to the beginning of all pre-existing ISBNs and starting all new ones with 979.

And for Charlie's complete satisfaction, the ISSN number stands for International Standard Serial Number, and is the equivalent of an ISBN for magazines and other serials. ISSNs are assigned to each magazine (or journal or other serial) title, not each individual issue. The interesting thing about ISSNs is that publishers like to hide them in very obscure places and in the tiniest print possible. Sometimes I think they don't print them in the issue at all - but they do still exist.

By contrast, ISBNs on books are very easy to find, unless the book is quite old. They are almost always on the back cover of the book, and always in the information on the back of the title page. If you ever want to find a publication through a library or bookstore, the ISBN or ISSN is the most precise way to search. Bowker's Books In Print, OCLC's FirstSearch, and the large online bookstores are all searchable by standard numbers. And you'll sound like you really know what you're talking about when you ask for a book that way.

Lauren Stara
Director, San Juan Island Library
phone number 360.378.2798
e-mail lstara@sjlib.org

news @sanjuanislander.com

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What is an ISBN?