International Standard Book Number

The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique^[1] commercial book identifier barcode. The ISBN system was created in the United Kingdom, in 1966, by the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith.

Originally, it was the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code and still was used in 1974; it was adopted as the international standard ISO 2108 in 1970. A similar, numeric identification, the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN), identifies periodical publications such as magazines. Since January 1, 2007, ISBNs are of 13 digits, like in Bookland EAN-13.^[2] The TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard.

1. ↑ Occasionally publishers will use an ISBN for more than one title (e.g. the first edition of "The Ultimate Alphabet" and "The Ultimate Alphabet Workbook" have the same ISBN, 0-8050-0076-3). On the other hand, books can be published with more than one ISBN: A German-as-a-second-language edition of Emil und die Detektive has the ISBNs 87-23-90157-8 (Denmark), 0-8219-1069-8 (United States), 91-21-15628-X (Sweden), 0-85048-548-7 (England) and 3-12-675495-3 (Germany).
2. ↑ See Frequently Asked Questions about the new ISBN standard Archived June 10, 2007, at the Wayback Machine from ISO