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Used Books
Transition to the 13-Digit ISBN for U.S. Publishers
There is concern in the U.S. publishing community that
the transition from a 10-digit to 13-digit ISBN will be
a costly endeavor that must be completed by January
2005. Many publishers have also voiced the opinion that
this transition is unnecessary for them, as they have
sufficient capacity in their allocated 10-digit ISBN
ranges for many years to come
R.R. Bowker, as the U.S. ISBN agency and a member of the
International Standards Organization Working Group (WG4)
that is recommending revisions to the ISBN standard
(ISO-2108), believes strongly in the value that 13-digit
ISBNs will provide to all publishers. This short paper
outlines the recommended timetable for making the
transition to the 13-digit ISBN, and the incremental
changes that U.S. publishers need to implement in order
to handle 13-digit ISBNs in their business processes.
Used books
Why is January 1, 2005 Important?
That’s the date that the Uniform Code Council has
established as the “sunrise date” for U.S. retailers to
join the rest of the world in using a full 13-digit EAN
in place of the current US 12-digit UPC. Utilizing
Bookland EANs, which conform to the general EAN-13
standard for product identifiers, will allow U.S. books
to be sold through all channels – both booksellers and
general merchants – using a single identifier. Used
books
What do U.S. Publishers Need to Do by January 1, 2005?
Publishers do NOT need to change their internal systems
by January 1, 2005 to handle 13-digit ISBNs. What they
DO need to have in place by this date is the ability to
communicate with trading partners that MAY now be using
Bookland EAN-13s as part of conforming to the EAN-13
“sunrise” date. It is to be noted that this need to
support EAN-13 identifiers with trading partners by this
date will exist independent of any decision made by the
publishing community on the overall 13-digit ISBN
timetable. Used books
Publishers must be able to convert the 10-digit ISBNs
utilized within their internal systems to
Bookland EAN-13s for transactions with trading partners,
such as book distributors and large retailers who will
be conforming to the 13-digit EAN standard. Publishers
are already doing this same conversion in generating the
Bookland EAN for the bar codes on the back
covers/jackets. Used books
The conversions between 10-digit ISBNs and Bookland
EAN-13s are quite straightforward and are outlined in
Appendix 1.
The Implementation date assigning new 13-digit ISBNs to
product will be January 1, 2007.
Beginning January 1, 2007, ISBNs issued by all of the
international ISBN agencies will consist of 13-digits.
This 13-digit number will replace the 10-digit number
currently in use in the U.S. Used books
If a national agency has unassigned inventory of
10-digit numbers at the start of 2007, the agency will
first exhaust that existing inventory by converting it
to the required 13-digit ISBN. The conversion will be
accomplished by adding the EAN “978” prefix to the
10-digit ISBN (most books published today carry a
13-digit number when the ISBN is converted to the
Bookland EAN bar code by adding the “978” prefix). Used
books
Once all existing 10-digit inventory has been used up,
the agencies will begin assigning 13-digit numbers with
the “979” prefix. The 979 numbers will be assigned both
to new publishers applying for the first time and to
established publishers applying for additional prefixes
after January 1, 2007, or after the last of the “978”
prefixes have been assigned, whichever occurs first.
Used books
Most US publishers feel they have enough unassigned
10-digit ISBN identifiers for their own title production
for many years to come, and as a result do not need to
make changes to their internal systems to handle longer
ISBN identifiers. U.S. Publishers and their national
ISBN agency are, however, part of a global publishing
community, and need to consider the impact that the
January 1, 2007 commencement of use of 13-digit ISBNs
with the “979” prefix elsewhere in the world may have on
their own internal business processes.
Consider the example of a U.S. publisher acquiring U.S.,
English Language publishing rights for a mystery novel
that was a huge bestseller in a non-English speaking
country where the original publisher has started using
13-digit ISBNs with the “979” prefix. It is likely that
there are places in a publisher’s systems and processes
that this “Original ISBN” for the work will need to be
stored and be available for both online reference and
off-line reporting. Publishers need to review all the
places an ISBN from another publisher might be stored in
their Internal Systems and assess readiness to handle
ISBNs longer than 10 digits by January 1, 2007. Used
books
Appendix 2 provides a fairly comprehensive, though not
necessarily complete, set of examples of where ISBNs get
used by the various industry participants in the book
publishing and distribution value chain. This should
help publishers identify those points where use of
13-digit ISBNs with the “979” prefix by non-US
publishers might impact their own business processes and
systems. Used books
R.R. Bowker will be a resource to U.S. Publishers in
their transition to the 13-digit ISBN
R.R. Bowker, in cooperation with the International ISBN
Agency, will assist publishers in making the transition
to full use of the 13-digit ISBN in several ways: Used
books
1. For ISBNs with the ‘978’ prefix, Books In Print
records will contain both the 13-digit ISBN and the
legacy 10-digit ISBN. This will allow books published
prior to the switch to the 13-digit ISBN to be located
by their legacy 10-digit ISBN identifiers. (ISBN’s with
the ‘979” prefix will only have the 13-digit ISBN
identifier.) Used books
2. A bi-directional 10-digit ISBN to 13-digit ISBN
conversion utility for ISBNs with the “978” prefix will
be available on the US ISBN Agency web site www.isbn.org,
which is managed by R.R. Bowker. This conversion utility
will generate an 13-digit ISBN from a 10-digit ISBN, and
will generate the legacy 10-digit ISBN for 13-digit
ISBNs with the “978” prefix. See Appendix 1 for details
of how this conversion works.
3. The source code for the ISBN conversion utility will
also be available on www.isbn.org. This code can be used
as a guide for implementing the conversions between the
10-digit ISBNs stored internally in a publisher’s
systems and the 13-digit ISBNs with the “978” prefix
required for supply-chain transactions with business
distributors and retailers.
It is Bowker’s goal to provide the necessary information
and counsel to U.S. publishers to help them make the
transition to the 13-digit ISBN in an incremental,
well-planned manner that will enable them to fully reap
the benefits of conforming to the global product
identifier EAN-13. In cooperation with the International
ISBN Agency, Bowker is already exploring the issues
related to the implementation of 13-digit ISBNs, and we
will be developing a set of recommendations to support a
smooth transition.
If you have any questions about this white paper, or any
other questions regarding the transition to the 13-digit
ISBN, please contact Andrew Grabois, Bowker’s Senior
Director, Publisher Relations & Content Development, at
908-219-0238, or by email at andrew.grabois@bowker.com.
Appendix 1.
Conversion between a 10-digit ISBN and Bookland EAN-13
(Adapted from ISO/CD 2108, version 1.0)
Converting from a 10-digit ISBN to Bookland EAN-13
For the purposes of this example, the complete 10-digit
ISBN is 0-393-04002-X
(Note that the last digit of a 10-digit ISBN is the
modulo 11 check-digit used to guard against errors
resulting from improper transcription of an ISBN. It can
have a value of 0-10, with an X being used to represent
the value 10).
1. Strip the check-digit from the 10-digit ISBN, as a
new check-digit will be generated for the Bookland
EAN-13. That gives us 0-393-04002-
2. Add the “978” Bookland EAN prefix that will be used
for all legacy 10-digit ISBN identifiers. We now have
978-0-393-04002-
3. We now calculate the Bookland EAN-13 check digit
using a weighting algorithm that utilises a modulus 10
check. Note that the hyphens do not take a part in the
check-digit calculation, but just serve as a visual aid
to make the structure of the Bookland EAN-13 identifier
easier to see.
Incomplete Bookland EAN-13 = 978-0-393-04002-?
Position
Total
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
ISBN
9
7
8
0
3
9
3
0
4
0
0
2
?
Weight
1
3
1
3
1
3
1
3
1
3
1
3
-
Product
81
9
21
8
0
3
27
3
0
4
0
0
6
-
Check digit = mod10 (10 - mod10 (Product Total)) = mod10
(10 – mod10 (81)) = 9
(Technical note: mod10 of a test number returns the
remainder of the test number divided by 10 unless the
number is less than 10 in which case it returns the test
number itself.)
Complete Bookland EAN-13 = 978-0-393-04002-9
Converting from Bookland EAN-13 to a 10-digit ISBN
Let’s start with the complete Bookland EAN-13 =
978-0-393-04002-9
1. Strip the check-digit, as a new modulus 11
check-digit will be generated for the 10-digit ISBN.
This gives us 978-0-393-04002-
2. Strip the “978” EAN Bookland prefix, giving a
10-digit ISBN string without its check-digit. (Note that
only Bookland EAN-13’s with “978” in the first 3
positions may be converted into legacy 10-digit ISBN
form; books with Bookland EAN-13’s with “979”-prefix –
which will not be issued until January 1, 2007 - can
only be identified in the 13-digit ISBN form. Stripping
the “978” prefix gives us 0-393-04002- Used books
3. The 10th digit of the 10-digit ISBN is the modulo 11
check-digit, which will have a value of 0-10, with the
value 10 being represented by “X”.
Modulus 11 algorithm to calculate check digit for the
10-digit ISBN (check digit unknown)
Incomplete 10-digit ISBN = 0-393-04002-?
Position
Total
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
ISBN
0
3
9
3
0
4
0
0
2
Weight
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
-
Product
144
0
27
72
21
0
20
0
0
4
-
Check digit = mod11 (11 - mod11 (Product Total)) = mod11
(11 – mod11 (144)) = 10
(Special case note: When the check digit calculates to
10, it is represented as an “X”.)
(Technical note: mod11 of a test number returns the
remainder of the test number divided by 11 unless the
number is less than 11 in which case it returns the test
number itself)
Complete 10-digit ISBN = 0-393-04002-X
Appendix 2.
The role of the ISBN throughout the book industry’s
value chain
The ISBN is the international standard for unique
identification of a specific edition of a title by a
specific publisher. It is used to identify a specific
edition of a title throughout an industry participant’s
business processes, both internal and those that connect
to other participants in the industry value chain.
Publishing Houses use ISBN for:
· Identifying firm publication projects from the
manuscript to the printer
· Identifying titles in publisher’s catalogs and
advertisements
· Listing of titles in printed directories, electronic
directories and Internet sites
· Stock control
· Copyright management
· Management of royalties
· Processing of Orders
· Accounting and Billing
· Monitoring Sales Data
· Producing statistics
· Handling of returns
Books In Print services, distribution centers and
wholesalers use ISBN for:
· Building bibliographic databases for the book trade
like Books In Print
· Building databases of titles in stock
· Ordering services based on electronic communication
systems like EDI (electronic data interchange) or via
the Internet
· Stock control
· Monitoring internal logistic processes
· Accounting and billing
· Producing sales data
· Returns administration
· Producing subject lists and catalogs
Centralized Library Service Organizations (which produce
ready-to-borrow copies) use ISBN for:
· Ordering from publishers or wholesalers
· Processing orders from libraries
· Stock control
· Monitoring Internal logistic processes
· Accounting & Billing
· Administration of rebinding processes
Booksellers use ISBN for:
· Bibliographic searches Used books
· Tracing addresses
· Ordering and re-ordering processes based on electronic
communication systems like EDI or via the Internet.
· Stock administration
· Accounting and billing the end consumer
· Electronic point-of-sale systems
· Web commerce applications
Libraries use ISBNs for:
· Ordering
· Copy-cataloging
· Lending statistics
· National lending right
· Interlending
· Union catalogs Used books
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