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THE FUNCTION AND SCOPE OF THE
ISBN
Recognised in more than 160 countries throughout the world, the
international Standard Book Number is a short and clear
identifier that is potentially machine-readable. The ISBN
denotes a particular monographic publication uniquely and
should, therefore, be associated with it from early production
stages. An essential instrument in production, distribution,
sales analysis, and bibliographic data storage systems in the
book trade, ISBN is also of vital importance to library
information management.
However, where a product is appropriate to another specific
numbering system (such as continuing resources and ongoing
integrating resources, which qualify for the ISSN, and printed
music, which qualifies for the ISMN), then that system must be
used. If appropriate, such identifiers should be used in
conjunction with the ISBN.
ISBNs are assigned to monographic 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. In addition, individual sections
(such as chapters) of monographic publications or issues or
articles of continuing resources that are made available
separately may also use the ISBN as an identifier. With regard
to the various media available, it is of no importance in what
physical form the content is documented and distributed;
however, each product form should be identified separately.
Some examples of types of monographic publications to which an
ISBN shall be assigned are:
-
Printed books
and pamphlets
-
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 entirely)
-
Maps
-
Educational/instructional films, videos and transparencies
-
Audio books 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
publication
-
Educational or
instructional software
-
Mixed media
publications (where the principal constituent is text-based)
-
Some examples of
the types of material to which an ISBN shall NOT be assigned
are:
-
Continuing
resources treated in their entirety as bibliographic entities
(individual
-
issues may
qualify for ISBNs)
-
Abstract
entities such as textual works and other abstract creations of
intellectual or artistic content
-
Ephemeral
printed materials such as advertising matter and the like
-
Printed music
-
Art prints and
art folders without title page and text
-
Personal
documents (such as an electronic curriculum vitae or personal
profile)
-
Greeting cards
-
Music sound
recordings
-
Software that is
intended for any purpose other than educational or
instructional
-
Electronic
bulletin boards
-
E-mails and
other electronic correspondence
-
Games
STRUCTURE OF ISBN
From 1 January, 2007 , an ISBN consists of 13 digits preceded by
the letters “ISBN”. The thirteen digit ISBN is divided into five
elements, three of them of variable length; the first and last
elements are of fixed length. The elements must each be
separated clearly by hyphens or spaces when displayed in human
readable form:
ISBN 978-81-8000-022-5
or
ISBN 978 81 8000 022 5
Prefix element: 978
Group Identifier: 81 stands for India , which known as country
code.
Publisher’s Prefix: 8000 stands for a particular publisher.
Title Identifier: 000 stands for the particular title.
Check digit: 5 The fifth element of the ISBN is the check digit.
This is calculated using a modulus 10 algorithm. Each of the
first 12 digits of the ISBN is alternately multiplied by 1 and
3. The check digit is equal to 10 minus the remainder resulting
from dividing the sum of the weighted products of the first 12
digits by 10 with one exception. If this calculation results in
an apparent check digit of 10, the check digit is 0.
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