International Standard Book Number - Overview

Overview

An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation (except reprintings) of a book, for example an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned after January 1, 2007, and 10 digits long if assigned before 2007. An International Standard Book Number consists of 4 or 5 parts:

1. for a 13-digit ISBN, a GS1 prefix: 978 or 979 (indicating the industry; in this case, 978 denotes book publishing)
2. the group identifier, (language-sharing country group)
3. the publisher code,
4. the item number (title of the book), and
5. a checksum character or check digit.

The ISBN separates its parts (group, publisher, title and check digit) with either a hyphen or a space. Other than the check digit, no part of the ISBN will have a fixed number of digits.