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# PERSISTENT IDENTIFIERS:
COMMERCIAL AND HERITAGE VIEWS

## 3/9 – CASE STUDY 1: The ISBN, a core identifier for publishers, booksellers and libraries

Readings and training materials

## Summary

This case study deals with an identifier system that is already familiar to many in the heritage sector, the ISBN (International Standard Book Number).

Librarians are familiar with ISBN numbers. They are used to

- order books for their collections
- add unique identification to their catalogue records
- retrieve books requested by their users
- collect reading list information in educational settings
- identify e-books that are “published” when new digital versions are created from older, out-of-copyright and out-of-print volumes.

Finally, many national libraries act as “registration agencies” for the ISBN standard in their countries. They gain access to information about new books directly from publishers this way, as well as copies of the books for cataloguing and legal deposit.
The National Library of Hungary, a Linked Heritage partner who contributed to this Learning Object, is one example of a national library that is also an ISBN registration agency.

## Page Index

History and development
Intended scope
Use cases
A number of many parts
Linking books with data (and data with other data!)
ISBN in Hungary
ISBN in Italy and Germany
Lessons from the case studies

## History and development

The ISBN is one of the success stories of international technical standardisation, having been adopted in the UK and USA in the late 1960s, and becoming an ISO standard just a few years later.

Now recognised in over 200 countries, it has increased in adoption and become integrated into other major standards, such as the GTIN-13 method for encoding retail product numbers in barcodes 1.

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## Intended scope

An “International Standard Book Number” is clearly used for “books” in some sense, but a more precise definition is given by its official governing body:

> “ISBNs are assigned to text-based monographic publications (i.e. one-off publications…) and certain types of related products that are available to the public, whether those publications and related products are available on a gratis basis or to purchase”

Note that this is more to do with the type of “publication” (the method of “making available to the public”) than the contents, and that “available to the public” implies that there are intended to be enough of copies for everyone who wants one!

The ISBN does not just identify “monographs” in the sense of “relatively short book or treatise on a single subject”.
In “library cataloguing, any nonserial publication, complete in one volume” 2 is called a “monograph”.
The “nonserial publication” part is absolutely the same as in the ISBN system. But: a “volume” is a bibliographic idea, and not what the ISBN is necessarily intended for.
A “volume” may be one specific copy of a book, or a conceptual division of the text content within the book, certain not something an ISBN can indicate. Libraries normally give a local number to each specific copy they hold, and they do not use a new ISBN for each copy!

Some examples from the official ISBN F.A.Q. will make clearer what publishers and retailers refer to with ISBNs:

- Printed books and pamphlets
- Individual chapters or sections of a publication if these are made available separately
- Braille publications
- Publications that are not intended by the publisher to be updated regularly or continued indefinitely
- Individual articles or issues of a particular continuing resource (but not the continuing resource in its entirety)
- Maps
- Educational/instructional films, videos and transparencies
- Audiobooks on cassette, or CD, or DVD (talking books)
- Electronic publications either on physical carriers (such as machine-readable tapes, diskettes, or CD-ROMs) or on the Internet
- Digitised copies of print monographic publications
- Microform publications
- Educational or instructional software
- Mixed media publications (where the principal constituent is text-based)

The common factor here is that these publications are discrete, text-based products that can be obtained (for a price or for free) in a single, complete transaction; one transaction obtains access to the whole publication.

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## Use cases

ISBNs are meant for the use of “publishers, booksellers, libraries and [internet] retailers” 3 to help with:

- ordering, supplying etc.
- listing, cataloguing, etc.
- sales records, invoicing and payment,
- stock control 4

They are used by intermediary partners in the supply chain, such as

- books-in-print services who collect data about products and provide a service to those who need large amounts of reliable product information
- retailers wanting to offer a wide range of books to their customers
- libraries and library cataloguing agencies, who can save time and money by re-using some of the book data to create catalogue records

The ISBN is a perfect example of supply chain identifier as we described in the section “Identifiers in the commercial world”. It is used by suppliers and purchasers at every point in the chain.

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## A number of many parts

An ISBN is really simply a number made up of 13 digits. It was always meant to be easy to find printed on the book itself, and to copy down for human use as well as machine processing. Displayed on the product itself it acts as a kind of “dog tag” for the book “found in the wild”…

5

The number can be written with or without spaces or hyphens: 978-0-571-08989-5, 9780571089895 and 978 0 571 08989 5 all mean exactly the same thing.

It is not obvious what the five parts mean – however, knowing the number is part of the ISBN namespace, it is possible to discover a certain amount of information within those digits.

There can be confusion about what an ISBN does and does not tell you, mostly because people assume more than is really there.
Essentially, it tells you a small amount of information about where and by whom the publication was registered.
So it links a publication to its publisher at the time of registration - but maybe not after that.
The rights to sell that publication may change hands, or the publisher itself may change its name or go out of business. So, the information encoded in the ISBN itself is historical.

Let us take the real ISBN number 978-0-571-08989-5 as an example and describe what each section means:

978 | 0 | 571 | 08989 | 5
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Prefix declaring this number as an ISBN within the GTIN-13 namespace Could also be 979 (and more may be added in future to add more space) | Registration group Groups are either geographic or language-based In this case "0" indicates English language | Registrant Identifies the publisher or imprint (brand name) which registered the publication | Publication Each specific edition of each publication gets a new number: e.g. hardhack, paperback, revised edition, different ebook formats | Check digit calculated from the other digits and used to detect transcription errors

Each part of this number makes a link between things and organisations.

This is the organisational and social infrastructure that gives the number both uniqueness and persistence.

There is a fairly simple hierarchical structure of agencies and registrants to ensure:

- firstly, uniqueness of assignment (authorisation to use ranges of numbers flows down from the International Agency, through RAs, to registrants)
- secondly, flow of product information (back up from registrants to the RA)

Because Registration Agencies can work on a national or language level, it is possible that there will be

- more than one agency assigning numbers from groups for the same language – such as the separate English-language agencies in the UK and USA
- or several agencies assigning different language groups in the same country – such as Flemish, French and German in Belgium.

Two distinct types of registration are happening here:

- registration of publishers by the registration agencies;
- registration of publications by the publishers!

Because publishers can only realistically be registered on a national level, the ideal is for all agencies to work at the national, rather than the language level. Currently, there are around 155 registration agencies in total.

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## Linking books with data (and data with other data!)

A small set of core details about each book must be collected from the publisher (Registrant)

- as an aid to maintaining uniqueness of the ISBNs,
- and a link between the each ISBN and the publication it refers to:

These are the “minimum referent data” that make a given ISBN unambiguous in pointing to one specific product. They are listed in the ISBN manual as:

ISBN Product form (e.g. hardback book, paperback, audiobook, ebook…) Title Series Contributor (author, illustrator, translator etc) Edition Language(s) | Imprint Publisher Country of publication Publication date ISBN of parent publication (e.g. when registering a chapter of a book for separate sale)

These details link the ISBN unambiguously with the product – like the “identifying characteristics” for a criminal suspect as we discussed in “Mistaken Identity”.

They also offer a basis for value-added data that either the RA or a bibliographic agency may provide, possibly using the ONIX for Books Product Information format to give a much more detailed, well-rounded view of each publication.

Here is a selection of some known books in print services in EU member states for you to explore:

EU Member state | Books in print service(s)
--- | ---
Belgium | http://www.boekenbank.be/ http://www.banquedulivre.net/
Czech Republic | http://www.sckn.cz/ceskeknihy/
Denmark | http://www.bogguide.dk/
Finland | http://www.kirjavalitys.fi/kv/
France | http://www.electre.com/
Germany (plus Austria, German Swiss) | http://vlb.de/
Greece | http://biblionet.gr/
Italy | http://www.ibuk.it/
Netherlands | http://www.cb-logistics.nl/
Spain | http://www.dilve.es/
Sweden | http://www.bokrondellen.se/
United Kingdom | http://www.nielsenbookdata.co.uk/
Norway | http://www.bokbasen.no

Registration Agencies collect the essential contact details of all their Registrants, together with imprints (brand names) they own.

This allows anyone looking up an ISBN to follow a chain of information back to the original Registrant (if they are still in business). Look-ups may be a paid-for service.

Contributors to books in print services, as the name implies, must provide information about the availability of the books in their data. This supply information closes the final link in the supply chain between the author and reader of the book, with each step enabled or even promoted by the use of ISBN according to the ISO standard.

Linked Heritage partners in Hungary and Germany are ISBN Registration Agencies for those countries, and in Italy, the RA is closely linked to our Linked Heritage partner.

Because each national group has its own agency, and as the Registration Agencies can choose how the provide the ISBN system in each country, there are differences in how the numbers are administered, though not in the service itself where the standard is followed.

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## ISBN in Hungary

The Hungarian National ISBN Agency is based in the National Library of Hungary (or NSL, National Széchényi Library, after its founder):

- The Hungarian ISBN and ISMN Office registers publications for both standards
- Registrations are stored in the in-house developed Hungarian ISBN Database
  - In use since 2003, when manual registration became unmanageable due to volume of work
  - The database contains data on printed and electronic materials which are identified by ISBN and published in Hungary.
  - Provides efficient information on documents to be published and lists of ISBNs which help NSL’s work on collection of legal deposit copies
- Provision of richer descriptive data on new publications to the ISBN agency will become mandatory under a new legal deposit law
- The agency issues ISBNs to Hungarian publishers free of charge, which implies a cost saving
  - for publishers – it is marginally cheaper to offer books for sale in a supply chain, than in some countries where publishers pay a fee
  - for the agency – there is no overhead to manage ISBN allocation fees

Further developments of NSL’s ISBN Database are planned:

- Creating ISBN lists of a publisher’s output in various media (printed materials, such as books and maps as well as electronic materials such as compact discs or e-books), for the internal use of the Legal Deposit Department, of which the Hungarian ISBN and ISMN Office is a part
- Deduplication routines to maintain uniqueness according to the ISO standard
- Compatibility with main database of National Széchényi Library, for exchange of bibliographical data
- Replacing manual registration with an electronic form, internally and for publishers:
  - Publishers will be able to assign ISBNs by filling an online form
  - The process will generate a simple bibliographical record at the same time
- External interfaces will include:
  - Providing the Hungarian Statistical Office with statistical information on books
  - Providing data to a future Hungarian books-in-print system
  - Allowing publishers to check the status of deposit copies of their publications (arrived or missed)

Our Linked Heritage partners at NSL identified some misconceptions and mistaken uses of the ISBN which usually come from expecting the standard to deliver more than just an identification system:

- Misunderstandings expressed by publishers:
  - Without an ISBN the publication cannot be considered as a book
  - ISBN is connected with copyright and gives protection against illegal duplication
  - In case of introducing a new price, a new cover or a new logo a new ISBN is also necessary
  - Other types of material might be assigned ISBN because ISBN is free of charge in Hungary and it is an easy way to create a GTIN-13 code for another type of product
  - Usage of ISBN is mandatory and publishers must pay a fine if it not used
  - Publishers have no obligations to deliver legal deposit copies of books without ISBN
  - If a publication has an ISBN, they have to give an extra copy to the Hungarian ISBN and ISMN Office, in addition to the legal deposit copy
  - If a publication has an ISBN, they have to give only one legal deposit copy and they send it to the Hungarian ISBN and ISMN Office.

Failure to apply the ISBN standard itself will result in faulty numbers that do not realise the intended benefits of applying the standard. In NSL’s experience:

- Non-standard (i.e. incorrect) uses of ISBN by publishers include:
  - Same ISBN for both print and e-book version of a book,
  - Same ISBN for both hardback and paperback version of a book,
  - Same ISBN for two or more different books,
  - Same ISBN for different editions of a book

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## ISBN in Italy and Germany

The ISBN agencies in Italy and Germany are rather similar so they are described together:

- In Italy and German Registration Agencies are maintained by subsidiaries of the publishers’ trade bodies in those countries
- Both RAs also register publications in their respective languages published in other nations (e.g. German publications from Belgium, Italian publications from San Marino)
- In both countries, ISBN registration is paid for by the Registrant, usually the publisher (fees are very low, usually less than €1 per ISBN, though they can be higher for small publishers using only a small number of ISBNs)
- Both ISBN agencies offer the ISBN-A service detailed in the separate case study

In Germany and Italy, the book industry is highly integrated – there are well-established relationships across the supply chains. This makes application of the identifier standard far simpler – of course, there are difficulties, but it is easier to correct mistakes and introduce new users to the standard.

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## Lessons from the case studies

- The ISBN illustrates all the features discussed in “Identifiers in the commercial world” and “Mistaken Identity”. This is because it is one of the oldest and best established standards, and because it was designed for an industry with a well-developed supply chain. Other identifiers’ case studies can be compared with these cases
- An important part of the work of a Registration Agency is educating users of the identifier, and correcting mistakes and misunderstandings – this is even more important in countries or industries where a standard is relatively new. It is not enough just to build a technological platform without support and promotion
- Commercial sector and heritage sector organisations can cooperate in providing a successful persistent identifier service – where there are clear benefits for everyone who contributes

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Explore further

From Dickens to Dante: ISBN propels book trade to billions (PDF), by Stella Griffiths; ISO Focus, 2011.
An ISO Focus special report outlining the current state of the ISBN standard, new developments and challenges.

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NOTES

1 http://www.isbn-international.org/pages/media/Usermanuals/ISBN%20Manual%202012%20-corr.pdf ↑
2 http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_m.aspx#monograph ↑
3 http://www.isbn-international.org/faqs ↑
4 http://www.isbn-international.org/faqs ↑
5 Michael P. White © http://www.ala.org/alsc/issuesadv/kidscampaign/clipart ↑
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