What is an ISBN? November 13, 2009
Posted by Olivier Hubert in : books, finding books, finding textbooks , trackbackAnyone who has ever looked at the back cover of a book has probably noticed the numbers above or below the bar code where it is written ISBN. What exactly do those numbers represent? Well, the ISBN, or International Standard Book Number, is a unique number that identifies almost every modern book. The ISBNs are managed by the ISO consortium under the standard ISO-2108. The number is 10 or 13 digits long, depending if the book was published before 2007 or not. Although most books have an ISBN, they are not required by law, except in some countries, to have one. Also, the ISBN was first implemented in 1970 so books published before that time do not have an ISBN.
How can an ISBN be of use to someone searching for books? Well since it uniquely identifies a book (or an edition of a book), it makes searching for one a lot easier. A vast majority of libraries reference books by their ISBN so if you are searching locally for a book, you can, for example, call all used books bookstores of your area and ask if they have that ISBN in stock. Using online search engines, entering the ISBN instead of the title or author really speeds up the search.
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