ISBN
History and Overview of ISBN
- The Standard Book Number (SBN) was developed in 1965 by WHSmith.
- The ISBN identification format was conceived in 1967 by David Whitaker and in 1968 by Emery Koltay.
- The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the ISO and published in 1970.
- The UK used the SBN code until 1974.
- The International ISBN Agency is the registration authority for ISBN worldwide.
- Each edition and variation of a publication is assigned a separate ISBN.
- The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned after 2007, and 10 digits long if assigned before.
- An ISBN consists of four parts for a 10-digit ISBN and five parts for a 13-digit ISBN.
- The parts include a prefix element, registration group element, registrant element, publication element, and check digit.
- The parts are separated by hyphens or spaces.
Issuing Process and Registration Group Element
- ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency responsible for each country or territory.
- The ranges of ISBNs assigned to a country depend on its publishing profile.
- Some ISBN registration agencies receive direct funding from the government.
- ISBN registration services can be provided by organizations like bibliographic data providers.
- A directory of ISBN agencies is available on the International ISBN Agency website.
- The registration group element is a 1-to-5-digit number within a prefix element.
- Registration groups are primarily allocated within the 978 prefix element.
- Examples of registration groups include 0 or 1 for English-speaking countries and 2 for French-speaking countries.
- Rare languages may have longer group elements.
- The 979 prefix element is reserved for International Standard Music Numbers (ISMNs).
Statistics and Registrant Element
- The United States had the most registered ISBNs in 2020, with 3.9 million.
- Other countries with high ISBN registrations include the Republic of Korea, Germany, China, the UK, and Indonesia.
- The United States had over 39 million lifetime ISBNs registered in 2020.
- The ISBN format changed from 10 digits to 13 digits on January 1, 2007.
- The International ISBN Agency assigns ISBNs to privately published books on its own initiative.
- The national ISBN agency assigns the registrant element and a series of ISBNs to the publisher.
- Publishers allocate ISBNs to their books.
- Most countries do not legally require publishers to assign an ISBN.
- Large bookstores typically only handle publications with assigned ISBNs.
- The International ISBN Agency maintains the details of over one million ISBN prefixes and publishers in the Global Register of Publishers.
ISBN Blocks and Check Digits
- Publishers receive blocks of ISBNs.
- Larger blocks are allotted to publishers expecting to need more ISBNs.
- A small publisher may receive ISBNs with varying digits for the registration group identifier, registrant, and publication element.
- Once a block of ISBNs is used, the publisher may receive another block with a different registrant element.
- There may be more than one registration group identifier used in a country.
- The ISBN-10 check digit must range from 0 to 10 (X is used for 10).
- The sum of the ten digits, each multiplied by its weight, must be a multiple of 11.
- The check digit is base eleven.
- The 13-digit ISBN system is not compatible with SBNs and has a different check digit calculation.
- The ISBN check digit method detects common types of errors, such as a single altered digit or transposed digits.
ISBN-13 Check Digit Calculation and Errors in Usage
- The ISBN-13 check digit is the last digit of the ISBN and ranges from 0 to 9.
- The check digit is calculated by multiplying each of the first twelve digits by its weight (alternating between 1 and 3) and summing them.
- The sum is then divided by 10, and the remainder is subtracted from 10 to get the check digit.
- The ISBN-13 check digit calculation is the same as the EAN-13 check digit calculation.
- The check digit ensures that the sum of all thirteen digits, each multiplied by its weight, is a multiple of 10.
- Publishers sometimes fail to check the correspondence of a book title and its ISBN before publishing, causing identification problems.
- Some books may share the same ISBN, leading to confusion for libraries, booksellers, and readers.
- Invalid ISBNs are sometimes displayed by libraries and booksellers, tagged as 'Cancelled ISBN' by the Library of Congress.
- The International Union Library Catalog indexes books by invalid ISBNs if a member library indexes them that way.
- ISBN check digit formula does not catch all errors of adjacent digit transposition, specifically when the difference between two adjacent digits is 5.