Document Library: Standards: ISBN-13

ISBN-13: For Libraries....

Technical Considerations

Technical services needed for implementation of the ISBN-13 in most libraries will be provided by Integrated Library System (ILS) vendors. BISG is currently evaluating the readiness of this community to provide solutions to such issues as:

• that the ISBN will become a thirteen-digit number as of January 1, 2007;

• that the 13-digit ISBN (ISBN-13) and the 13-digit number represented by the Bookland EAN bar code for any given book will be identical;

• that sometime after January 1, 2007, national ISBN agencies will begin issuing ISBN-13s with a prefix of '979';

• that, once '979' prefixes are issued, 'parsing' an ISBN-13 / Bookland EAN by stripping off the initial three digits, recalculating the check digit and storing the resulting ten-digit number will no longer be a viable option (because a '978' ISBN and a '979' ISBN, both having the same nine-digit core, will both convert to the same ten-digit number);

• that, once the ISBN becomes a 13-digit number, the old BISAC Fixed-format for electronic orders and order acknowledgements will be unable to handle the new, longer number, and will thus have to be replaced with a different EDI format.