Document Library: Standards: ISBN-13

ISBN-13: For IT Professionals....

Making Systems Changes to Accommodate ISBN-13

The ISBN-13 transition has required some IT Professionals to make system changes to accommodate a longer product identification number.

Those organizations who have made system changes to accommodate ISBN-13 are encouraged to allow space to accommodate the full range of GTIN system product identifiers up to 14 digits long.

The GTIN is a globally unique GS1 System identification number for products and services. A GTIN may be 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits in length, represented as GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13, and GTIN-14 respectively.

The ISBN-13 is an GTIN-13 digit number and part of the global GTIN system that is widely used to identify most types of consumer goods.

Organizations that do not expand their database fields to 14 digits may find themselves at a future disadvantage if the book industry decides to implement the GTIN-14 sometime down the line. [See "Using a GTIN-14 Data Structure" below for more information about GTIN].

For more information:

Using a GTIN-14 Data Structure

Converting ISBN-10s to ISBN-13s

Converting ISBN-13s to ISBN-10s

EDI Strategies for the Book Industry and the 13-digit ISBN

Bar Coding Guidelines for the U.S. Book Industry

Important To Remember:

There is no standard for converting ISBN-13s beginning with '979' into ISBN-10s.

ISBN-10s will not exist for ISBN-13s beginning with '979'.