ISBN explanation

[JC Schneider <niantic@AOL.COM>]

 Information is from Arithmetic Teacher, April 1989, pages 2-3.

Text below is excerpted from that article.

ISBNS are specially designed and computed, ten digit numbers that are
supossed to be printed on the back cover and the reverse side of the title
page of every book published in the world.  The ISBN numbering system was
designed in the late 1960s and is followed by essentially all publishers in
the industrialized, wealthy nations but is largely ignored by publishers in
poorer countries.

Example:

Willy the Wimp written by Anthony Browne
published by Alfred Knopf, a subsidiary of Random House.

ISBN 0-394-87061-1

0
This first number tells the place of publication; books published in the
United States and the United Kingdom begin with either 0 or 1; books
published in France, 2: Germany, 3: Japan, 4: the Soviet Union, 5, and so on.

394
This second group of numbers, which can be up to 7 digits long, is the
publisher's number.  For example, all books published by Random House are
394; all books published by Scholastic Books are printed with the numbers
590.

87061
This group of numbers identifies each specific book title and binding; each
different binding of the same book receives a different number: for example,
the different library (heavy duty) binding of Willy the Wimp is 97061.

1
This last number is the "secret" check digit, to make sure that this is an
authentic ISBN.


LM_NETters:
If anyone is really interested, this article includes directions to
successfully compute an ISBN, as well as an explanation of ISSN.  Please
email me directly if you want this info.

Joan C. Schneider, Information Specialist
Niantic Center School, 7 West Main Street, Niantic, CT 06357

Niantic@aol.com