Quick Facts
The information below provides a quick primer on all things ISBN-13.
Lasted updated June 23, 2009The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique identifier assigned to every published book and book-like product. It provides a standard way to identify books in global trade.
The International Standards Organization (ISO) changed the length of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) from 10 to 13 digits, effective January 1, 2007.
The length of the ISBN was changed to expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and prevent numbering shortages from occurring in certain areas of the world.
Prior to January 1, 2007 books were published using ISBN-10s.
Beginning January 1, 2007 all books are to be published using ISBN-13s.
EAN-13 is a product identification standard for identifying goods and services in global trade. For the past 20 years, the book industry has used the EAN-13 standards to encode book identifiers in barcodes for scanning by retailers at point of sale. This barcode identifier has usually begun with the EAN prefix '978', one of two prefixes EAN International has established solely for book identification.
The EAN-13 currently displayed below (and encoded within) the Bookland EAN barcode is already a 13-digit equivalent of the current ISBN-10. This means that effective January 1, 2007, the EAN-13 will become numerically equivalent to the ISBN-13.
Bookland EAN Barcode (with Price Add-On)
Note: The Bookland EAN barcode appears on the outside back cover - Cover 4 - of most books and on the inside front cover - Cover 2 - of most mass market paperbacks. See BISG's Barcoding Guidelines for the U.S. Book Industry for examples and more information.
Changing the ISBN-10 to an EAN-13 number (i.e. an ISBN-13) brought the numbering system for books into full alignment with the global EAN.UCC numbering system that is widely used to identify most other types of consumer goods.
The new ISBN standard specifies that all ISBN-10s be assigned the ISBN-13/EAN-13 prefix '978' when converted to ISBN-13s. It is important to remember, however, that a new check digit must be calculated when the '978' prefix is added to an ISBN-10.
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As of January 1, 2007, the ISBN-13 is required to appear, in its hyphenated form, above the barcode, preceded by the abbreviation "ISBN" or "ISBN-13". At this time, users will be able to refer to either this number or the numerically equivalent EAN-13 below the bar code. See example below:
Bookland EAN Barcode (with Price Add-On)
See BISG's Barcoding Guidelines for the U.S. Book Industry for further barcoding guidelines.
Once the existing supply of ISBN-10s is exhausted in each country, publishers needing new allotments of ISBNs will be provided ISBNs with the '979' prefix. It is important to note that publishers are not likely to be assigned the same ISBN prefixes following '978' and '979' as they currently hold. (e.g. the publisher prefixes "978-0-1234" and "979-0-1234" will probably belong to different publishers.)
The first 979-prefixed ISBN registration group element, 979-10, was assigned to the Paris-based French National ISBN Agency, AFNIL, in June 2009.
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Now that '979' prefixes have entered the market place, the uniqueness of an ISBN can not be assured unless 13 digits (including the '978' or '979' prefix along with the properly calculated check digit) are used.
Readiness to handle ISBN-13s will vary by trading partner. Most publishers and book suppliers are prepared to transact business using ISBN-13s as of January 2007. However, many will continue to accept orders with ISBN-10s until the industry has completed a full transition to ISBN-13.
Organizations making system changes to handle ISBN-13 are encouraged to anticipate the future need to accommodate (store, view and exchange) any of the EAN.UCC product identifiers which can be up to 14 digits long.