Today, one of the most successful standards for electronic publications is the ISBN code of the book. What is this format and what are its advantages, few users know, but for less than thirty years of active use, it has already managed to conquer publishers from around the world, and the modern bookselling without it is simply unimaginable. The order and subsequent distribution of books reached a completely new level after the introduction of this standard, because a huge number of publications in the current market can be under normal control only with the help of directories based on the use of ISBN books. What is it and how is it used, we will consider further.
By itself, this code is quite short and can be easily read using special scanning equipment. For many people, it remains unknown where to find ISBN books, what it represents and what advantages this format has. It is worth noting that it is applicable not only to various printed publications, but can also be used for books not in print format, and especially electronic ones, among which it has become popular today.
What are the advantages of the format?
The popularity of this format is determined by the merits of ISBN books. What are these benefits:
- Without exaggeration, the format can be called an absolutely unique identifier of publications, because an extremely simple number of 10 digits completely replaces any long descriptions. Thus, a person saves a significant amount of effort and time, and also completely eliminates any errors during copying.
- Now it’s easier to compile and update subsequently various catalogs of published literature by analogy with the “Books in Print” technology. Extremely simple, if necessary, you can also find all the information you are interested in on certain books published.
- The order, as well as the subsequent distribution of books, is carried out in most cases when using this format, as it is much faster and more efficient.
- ISBN can be read using standard scanning equipment in the form of a bar code, while the scanning procedure is fast enough and eliminates the predominant majority of errors.
- ISBN is necessary during the operation of various electronic sales terminals in modern bookstores.
- Rights management today in most cases is carried out using this system.
- Sales data is also monitored using ISBN.
- When using cataloging based on this system, the efficiency of libraries significantly increases.
- Also based on this system is the national rental law in the UK.
What is he like?
International Standard Book Number - This is how ISBN books are decrypted. What is it, today only a few people know who are actively interested in reading books and use them both electronically and in traditional form. All over the world this format is popular for the reason that it is the most clear, short and at the same time readable identification number, with the help of which it is possible to quickly identify any book without any difficulty. Once such an intelligent product is assigned its own unique number, it should have this format.
It is worth noting that today the ISBN format accompanies publication from the production stage onwards. For this reason, it can be called one of the most important tools in the modern system of distribution and rationalization of book trade.
How is it used?
Today, almost any publication has its own ISBN number. The book code is set for the following editions:
- all kinds of brochures or printed books;
- publications that use mixed media;
- books recorded on CD or cassettes (audio books);
- specialized microcomputer software;
- electronic books;
- Braille editions;
- publications stored on microcarriers;
- cards.
It is worth noting that this list is incomplete, and in fact the ISBN format is actively used today to register many different books. One-time print media, including all kinds of diaries, calendars, promotional materials, and other similar products, may not use this recording format. This also applies to collections of reproductions without a title page and text or all kinds of sound recordings.
Structure
The book is searched for by ISBN by its individual code, which is composed of the very abbreviation ISBN, as well as 10 subsequent digits. It is worth noting that in countries where the Latin alphabet is not used, the abbreviation can be used with the local alphabet in addition to the ISBN, which is written in Latin.
A code consisting of 10 digits is divided into four different groups of different lengths, which are quite clearly separated from each other by a space or hyphen, while it is worth noting the fact that in practice the use of a hyphen is optimal. The number of digits that are in the first three parts of the code can be different, while the number of digits identifying a particular group or publisher is determined by the estimated number of print runs of a particular publisher or group of publishers. If we are talking about publishers or groups with only a small number of publications, then the identifier is extremely short.
Group id
The country, region or language area of the system is the most important thing that includes the first part of the ISBN for an e-book. It is worth noting the fact that certain parts of the system quite often form linguistic areas or unique regional groups. The maximum possible length of such an identifier is 5 characters.
Each group identifier is assigned without fail with the help of the international agency ISBN, which is currently located in Berlin.
Publisher ID
In the second part of this code, you can determine which publisher from a group issued a particular book. Now there is no need to perform a number of additional actions if you want to find a book with ISBN. Using the publisher’s identifier, in the overwhelming majority of cases, not only the name of the publisher itself, but also its address is determined quite accurately. In the event that the publisher has not turned off the numbers that are allocated for it, then a specialized publisher identifier may be allocated for it, the length of which should not exceed 7 characters.
Publisher IDs are assigned to certain literature directly by the ISBN agency itself, which is responsible for managing this system in various countries, regions, or language areas.
Edition Id
The third part of the code determines which particular publication is being discussed in a particular publishing house. It is worth noting that this identifier can have a length of no more than 6 digits, and since the ISBN must necessarily consist of at least 10 digits, the unfilled ones are filled with zeros.
Check digit
The check digit is the last item in this code. It is worth noting that this figure is calculated as a division modulo 11 with a value of 10-2, while if 10 turns out to be a check digit, then it is replaced by X. This is important to remember if you do not know how to get the ISBN for the book .
Thus, any digit from the first nine (including the control one) is ultimately multiplied by a number from 2 to 10, and the resultant result with the added control digit should be divided by 11 without any remainder.
How are numbers allocated?
The number of digits in each individual part can vary, despite the fact that there should be no more than nine in total, because these nine digits together with the control represent the final code, consisting of 10 digits.
The number of digits in the group identifier may vary depending on how many publications are in this group. Thus, in those groups in which less printed matter is produced, numbers of one or two digits are used, while publications with large print issues receive numbers with three digits or more.
In order to ensure ease of reading, as well as to make it easier to find a book on ISBN, all parts of the code are separated by hyphens or spaces, while using hyphens at the programming stage can significantly reduce the amount of work associated with data entry.