Cataloger's Corner

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10 & 13-digit ISBN Information

On January 1, 2007, the book industry will begin using 13 digit ISBNs to identify all books in supply chain. 
Why?
1. to expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and alleviate numbering shortages in certain areas of the world.
2. to fully align the numbering system for books with the global EAN.UCC identification system that is widely used to identify most other consumer goods worldwide.

  ISBN: 1-4028-9462-7

How it is created?
Two new prefixes have been created. 
1.The 978 prefix will be added in front of the current ISBN-10 and with the addition of a new check digit at the end, the new ISBN-13 is created.

2. The new 979 prefix will not be utilized until all 978 pre-fixes have been assigned. However, 13 digit ISBNs that begin with 979 can never be converted to 10 digit ISBNs. They have no 10 digit counterpart.

3. YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONVERTING the ISBN.

The impact ?
1. Publishers have been printing both the ISBN-10 and the ISBN-13 on the Copyright Page in this format:

                                                              ISBN-10:  1-56619-909-3
                                                              ISBN-13:  978-1-56619-909-4

 It is often also seen this way on Cover page 4 (back cover in the corner where the product code is found.

2. The SBISD system will handle BOTH versions.

3. Books published after January 1, 2007 will only have the ISBN...the 13-digit one.

4. You DO need to add both ISBNs (if they are present in the information) to any records that you create or update from this point. REMEMBER: Leave the dashes out when preparing the ISBN for the record!

Web sites for additional information

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/13digit.html

http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp

http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/ISBN.html#FAQ

http://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/iso/tc46sc9/isbn.htm

http://www.talis.com/news/news/ISBN_revision.pdf#search=%2213-digit%20ISBN%22

http://www.bowkersupport.com/isbn13

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Page edited - 10/29/2008

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