Published in Teleread

"Data is "horrifying" and is stifling the growth of the industry. A controversial subject so decided to get some hard data by doing a large scale set of interviews.

Little support for current ISBN policy, publishers don't think they need them for new digital products; general move to "production" format policy, look at ISBN as guideline not as something that is required; limited business case, little support for ISBN to be assigned to the smallest unit; library supply problematic; continued need for education; limitation of ISBN for future needs; metadata issues

If don't get arms around ISBN issue is that no two trading partners will really know exactly what is being traded. In long term if don't get this right will see a cost base rise."

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