How many of you know about ISBN Number? I know many of you have heard about it but never want to know y and how it’s used?

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

• The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin for the booksellers and stationers W. H. Smith and others in 1961 Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Book land EAN-13sOccasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure; however, this can be rectified later.
• The purpose of the ISBN 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.

• A similar numeric identifier, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines

 ISBN 10 and ISBN 13

All ISBN numbers used to be 10 digits long over the past few years publishers have been switching to ISBN numbers that are 13 digits long.   Sometimes it even says "ISBN 10" next to one number and "ISBN 13" next to the other number.  It is just part of the switch to the longer numbers.  The ISBN is how books are rung up and sorted in computer systems listing both numbers give book stores and libraries time to catch up.  The ISBN 13 number will start with 978 or 979 most often I see 978 but I don't know why that is.  Some numbers within the ISBN have meaning like with the ISBN 10 all books in english have an ISBN starting with 1 or 0 in ISBN 13 it is the 4th number so really they are running out of numbers and need to use a longer number.

Overview

An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation (except reprinting) 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 Book land country code.

1. for a 13-digit ISBN, a GS1 prefix: 978 or 979 (indicating the industry; in this case, 978 denotes book publishing)
2. the group identifier, (language-sharing country group)
3. the publisher code
4. the item number (title of the book),and
5. A checksum character or check digit.

The ISBN separates its parts (group, publisher, title and check digit) with either a hyphen or a space. Other than the check digit, no part of the ISBN will have a fixed number of digits.

ISBN ON BOOK....

To Be Continued.................

With Love
Dipali