The Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code is a 9-digit
commercial book identifier system
created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of
Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,[2] for
the booksellers and stationers WHSmith and
others in 1965. The ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in
1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker (regarded as the "Father of the ISBN")
and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay[4] (who
later became director of the U.S. ISBN agency R.R. Bowker).
The 10-digit ISBN format was
developed by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was published in
1970 as international standard ISO 2108. The United Kingdom continued to
use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. ISO has appointed the International ISBN
Agency as the registration authority for ISBN worldwide and the ISBN Standard
is developed under the control of ISO Technical Committee 46/Subcommittee 9 TC 46/SC 9.
The ISO on-line
facility only refers back to 1978.
An SBN may be converted to
an ISBN by prefixing the digit "0". For example, the second edition
of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by
Hodder in 1965, has "SBN 340 01381 8" – 340 indicating
the publisher, 01381 their serial number, and 8 being the check digit. This
can be converted to ISBN
0-340-01381-8; the check digit does not need to be re-calculated.
Since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is
compatible with "Bookland" European Article Number EAN-13s.
An ISBN is assigned to each
edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book. For example, an ebook,
a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a
different ISBN.[10] The ISBN is
13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, and 10 digits long if
assigned before 2007. An International Standard Book Number consists of 4
parts (if it is a 10 digit ISBN) or 5 parts (for a 13 digit ISBN):
1.
for a 13-digit ISBN, a prefix element – a GS1 prefix: so far
978 or 979 have been made available by GS1,
2.
the registration group element,
(language-sharing country group, individual country or territory)
3.
the registrant element,
4.
the publication element, and
5.
a checksum character or check digit.
A 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts (prefix
element, registration group, registrant, publication and check
digit), and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or
spaces. Separating the parts (registration group, registrant, publication and check
digit) of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces.
Figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated,
because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits.
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