wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/12/84)
Does anyone know if the ISBN numbers assigned to books have some coded meaning or interpretation, other than something trivial like "publisher" and "sequence number" or something equally boring? I'm guessing that, in a number like "0-89141-161-5", the "89141" refers to the publisher (because, in the publisher's book catalog in front of me that I am using for an example, all the books have that number). But would the "161" just mean "the 161th book issued by publisher #89141"? And what about the preceeding "0" and trailing "5"? I was hoping to find some sort of coding that would define types of books, like "all cookbooks have a number ending in 3" or something like that. Curious, Will Martin seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA
paulb@hcrvax.UUCP (Paul Bonneau) (10/16/84)
[]
The "161" number refers to a publisher - each major one has a number.
I can't remember what the others are for...
--
I'm a man! I'm not a horse! Paul Bonneau
{decvax|utzoo|watmath}!hcr!hcrvaxandyb@dartvax.UUCP (Andy Behrens) (10/16/84)
The interpretation of the ISBN number "0-89141-161-5" is
0 Geographical region or language
89141 Publisher
161 Title
5 Check digit
The title numbers are assigned arbitrarily by each publisher, so they
have no independent meaning.
Region 0 is "English-speaking countries", I believe. The grouping
of the digits is variable, so less-widely spoken languages may have
more digits assigned to the region and fewer to the publisher.
Andy Behrens
andyb@dartmouth.csnet
{astrovax,dalcs,decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!andybmerry@ism70.UUCP (10/18/84)
ISBN is an acronym for International Standard Book Number. The ISBM uniquely identifies a book, thus facilitating handling orders and keeping track of inventory by computer. In ISBN 0-226-07522-2, for example, 0 indicates that the book was written in an English-speaking country; the second group, 226, identifies the publisher; the third group identifies the book; and the last is the "check digit," which automatically discloses any error in the preceding group. Publishers assign ISBNs themselves, following the guidelines set up by R.R. Bowker Co. Further information can be obtained from R.R. Bowker, 205 East 42nd St., NY, NY 10017.
garret@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (Trisha O Tuama) (10/21/84)
***** Perhaps we should now go on to a discussion of what ISSN numbers stand for? Trisha the Librarian
emjej@uokvax.UUCP (11/01/84)
The following info gleaned from an introductory Algol 68 text
(Brailsford and Walker, *Introductory Algol 68 Programming*(?),
Ellis Horwood):
ISBN check digit = (sum for i in {1..10} of i * ith digit) mod 11
Perhaps not too useful, but might come in handy...
James Jones