ISBN-13 for dummies

21 Pages·2005·0.374 MB·English

by  Zoe Wykes

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Everything you need
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ISBN-13 transition
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ISBN-13
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
SPECIAL EDITION
Edited by Zoë Wykes
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ISBN-13 For Dummies®, Special Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
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ISBN-13: 978-0-555-02340-2
ISBN-10: 0-555-02340-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................1
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................1
ISBN-13: Everything You Need to Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
What Is an ISBN? ..............................................................................................2
The Components of an ISBN ..........................................................................3
Transitioning the ISBN from 10 to 13 Digits .................................................4
ISBN-13s Are EANs ..........................................................................................5
Working with ISBN-13 ......................................................................................6
Handling the full ISBN-13 ......................................................................6
Banking your ISBN-10s ..........................................................................6
Converting your ISBN-10s to ISBN-13s ................................................6
Converting ISBN-13s back to ISBN-10s ................................................8
Converting 979 ISBN-13s to ISBN-10s: Stop! Don’t Do It! ...................8
Transitioning to ISBN-13 .................................................................................8
Dual numbering .....................................................................................8
Reconfiguring databases ......................................................................9
Communicating electronically in 14 digits .......................................10
Becoming ISBN-13 Compliant ......................................................................10
Working with ISBNs and Bar Codes ............................................................11
ISBN-13 bar codes contain no changes .............................................11
ISBNs and UPCs ...................................................................................12
Argh, I can’t deal with all of this! Can someone else
create the bar code for me? ...........................................................12
Help! The ISBN Printed on My Book Is Wrong! ..........................................13
Ten (Okay, Thirteen) Book Industry Web Sites .........................................13
Appendix A: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
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Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Composition Services
Development
Project Coordinator: Ryan Steffen
Senior Project Editor:Zoë Wykes
Layout and Graphics: Denny Hager
Editorial Manager:Rev Mengle
Proofreaders: Laura Albert
Special Help from BISG: Angela Bole, Tom
Clarkson, Laura Dawson, Rachel Rushefsky
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley,Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek,Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder,Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele,Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple,Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey,Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey,Director of Composition Services
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Introduction
O
n January 1, 2007, the ISBN agency will begin issuing 13-digit ISBNs—
giving the book industry less than two years to transition from 10-digit
to 13-digit ISBNs. After January 1, 2007, publishers must assign only 13-digit
ISBNs to their books, and retailers must accept 13-digit ISBNs in their sales
systems.
In this document, we discuss the issues you need to be aware of during the
transition. The information we provide is important to know—whether you’re
a beginner or an advanced ISBN user.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this document, you see four different icons. Here’s what they
mean to you.
Think of these nuggets of information as information to tattoo on your brain.
This little guy alerts you to information that not everyone will want to know.
It’s okay to skip this part if you’re so inclined.
When you see this icon, you’ll find an extra valuable tidbit that is bound to be
worthwhile.
Heads up when you see this icon. This is where we tell you mistakes you can
make that will guarantee you’ll have problems down the road if you don’t pay
attention.
Where to Go from Here
What are ya waitin’ for? Simply move to the next page and start reading.
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ISBN-13: Everything
You Need to Know
In This Document
(cid:1)Defining an ISBN
(cid:1)Understanding the components of an ISBN
(cid:1)Changing the ISBN from 10 to 13 digits
(cid:1)Getting it: ISBN-13s are EANs
(cid:1)Working with ISBN-13
(cid:1)Transitioning to ISBN-13
(cid:1)Becoming fully ISBN-13 compliant
(cid:1)Using ISBNs and bar codes
(cid:1)Knowing what to do when the ISBN on your book is printed wrong
(cid:1)Discovering nifty Web sites to reference for ISBN information
I
n this document, you find out what an ISBN is, how an ISBN is used, and
what the components of an ISBN are. ISBN-13 For Dummiesalso explains
the January 2007 transition of the ISBN from a 10-digit number to a 13-digit
number. The purpose of this document is to help you understand how to
work with ISBNs during and after the ISBN-13 transition, what things about
ISBNs aren’t going to change, and how to handle the changes that are coming.
What Is an ISBN?
ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number—a unique identifier
assigned to each edition of every published book and book-like product.
Think of ISBNs as catalog numbers for books. Just as any business needs to
distinguish between its catalog items, so do trading partners(the people you
do business with) in the book industry need to distinguish, for example,
between the hardcover edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stoneand
the paperback edition. The ISBN allows you to make this distinction.
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ISBN-13: Everything You Need to Know
The U.S. ISBN agency Web site (www.isbn.org) defines an ISBN as follows:
“The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 10-digit number that
uniquely identifies books and book-like products published internationally.
The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a
title from one specific publisher and it is unique to that edition, allowing for
more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities,
wholesalers and distributors.”
In general, national ISBN agencies allocate ISBNs to publishers, who in turn
assign them to books and book-like products.
Unlike books and book-like products, music and videos—products primarily
for entertainment—are usually assigned a number called a UPC(Universal
Product Code) or an EAN,not an ISBN. (See the section “ISBN-13s Are EANs”
later in this document for a definition of EAN.) However, audio book cassettes
and CDs that are primarily narrations of stories and poems or instructional
material are eligible for ISBNs. These media can contain music, but in order
to have an ISBN assigned, the music must be secondary to the spoken word.
To get an ISBN for your book or book-like product, you must go to your
national ISBN agency. In the U.S., the national ISBN agency is R. R. Bowker, and
you can find its Web site at www.isbn.org. There, you’ll not only get an ISBN
application to complete, but the directions about how to use ISBNs as well.
Any time you change the binding or format, introduce new material, or
change existing material, you must get (or assign) a new ISBN for your book.
You do not, however, need to assign a new ISBN if you’re simply changing the
cover price.
When you order your ISBNs from R. R. Bowker, you won’t actually get an
ISBN; the ISBN agency allocates ISBNs in batches of 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000.
You then assign one of the ISBNs in the batch to the book you’re preparing to
publish, banking the rest for future use.
The Components of an ISBN
Until the change from 10- to 13-digit ISBNs takes place in January 2007, an
ISBN is a 10-digit number that’s divided by hyphens into four parts:
(cid:2) Part I:Identifies the country in which the ISBN is assigned.
(cid:2) Part II:Identifies the publisher to whom the ISBN was originally allo-
cated. Keep in mind, however, that as publishers buy and sell various
imprints(subsidiaries of a publishing house) or parts of imprints, this
part of the ISBN becomes less and less reliable as a way to identify the
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ISBN-13 For Dummies, Special Edition
publisher of the title. If one publishing house sells an imprint to another
publishing house, this part of the ISBN doesn’t change. Therefore, Part II
of an ISBN can become meaningless in terms of identifying a book’s cur-
rent publisher.
(cid:2) Part III:Identifies the title.
(cid:2) Part IV:The check digit(the last digit in an ISBN). The check digit ensures
that each ISBN is valid, meaning that the number is correct. The concept
of a check digit will become clearer as you move through this document.
Note: The “X” that you see at the end of some ISBNs is a Roman numeral,
a way of putting the number “10” into a single digit.
Parts II and III of an ISBN-10 vary in length as to how the numbers are
grouped, but the total number of digits in an ISBN-10 is always 10.
Transitioning the ISBN
from 10 to 13 Digits
The ISBN was originally developed as a 10-digit number, which for more than
three decades has performed extremely well as a catalog number for books.
However, the International ISBN Agency has determined that sometime in the
not-too-distant future they will begin to run out of 10-digit numbers for pub-
lishers. Accordingly, in January 2007, the ISBN will be redefined from a 10-digit
to a 13-digit number.
By industry agreement, the 10-digit ISBN is referred to as “ISBN-10” and the
13-digit ISBN is referred to as “ISBN-13.”
So many ISBNs, so little time . . .
Recently, increased demand for phone numbers means dialing ten digits instead of just seven—
within the borough of Manhattan led to the adop- so that each phone number remains unique. In
tion of a second area code. As a result, people much the same way, the book industry is expand-
placing phone calls within Manhattan are ing the ISBN from 10 to 13 digits so that it too
now required to include the area code—which remains unique.
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ISBN-13: Everything You Need to Know
ISBN-13s Are EANs
The goal of obtaining additional numbers for books could have been reached
by changing the ISBN-10 to an 11-digit number rather than a 13-digit one. The
13-digit number was chosen, however, because by redefining the ISBN in this
way, the number can become part of a larger system of identifiers called EAN.
EANs are 13-digit identifiers assigned to all products available for retail sale
worldwide. In short, using the 13-digit ISBN will make it easier to distribute and
sell books worldwide. Note:In the beginning, EAN stood for European Article
Number. Although the identifier is now officially named the International Article
Number,it maintains the shortened moniker EAN.
You may have heard of something called a “Bookland EAN.” A number called
the “Bookland EAN” has been used in the bar code on books since the early
1980s. This number incorporated all ISBN-10s worldwide into products sold
by the fictitious country of “Bookland.” The new ISBN-13 is identical to the
Bookland EAN.
Some of the following information may get a bit confusing. However, the most
important thing to remember when reading it is that when someone talks
about a Bookland EAN, think “ISBN-13” and you’ll be fine. As stated before,
the new ISBN-13 is identical to the Bookland EAN.
Okay, here goes: Two “prefixes,” 978 and 979, are assigned to “Bookland.” All
EANs currentlyassigned to book products (Bookland EANs) begin with 978
and are constructed in the same way as the ISBN-10 (refer to the section,
“The Components of an ISBN,” earlier in this document). Although only 978
prefixes have been used so far, as the supply of 978 numbers is exhausted,
the 979 prefix will be issued to many new ISBN-13s.
The final digit of an ISBN-13, just like the final digit of an ISBN-10, is called the
check digit. Because check digits are calculated based on the numbers con-
tained within the ISBN (and the numbers contained within an ISBN-10 and
an ISBN-13 are slightly different) the check digits of each will almost always
differ. Note: Although we won’t go into detail here, it’s important to note that
the formulas for calculating the check digit for an ISBN-10 and an ISBN-13 are
also different.
The difference between a Bookland EAN and an ISBN-13 is strictly that of termi-
nology. The book industry concluded that using the term “ISBN-13”—rather
than “Bookland EAN”—would be less confusing to booksellers because rather
than being the introduction of a new system, the ISBN-13 is really an extension
of the existing ISBN system.