Xref: utzoo comp.text:7764 comp.databases:8201 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mtxinu!jaap From: jaap@mtxinu.COM (Jaap Akkerhuis) Newsgroups: uiuc.text,comp.text,uiuc.general,comp.databases Subject: Re: ISBN numbers Message-ID: <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM> Date: 17 Dec 90 20:59:11 GMT References: Reply-To: jaap@mtxinu.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley Lines: 27 In article aglew@crhc.uiuc.edu (Andy Glew) writes: > > Is there any way that I can convert ISBN numbers into more meaningful > author/title lists, and save myself a bit more typing? Not really, unless you type it in. As far as I remember, the only thing coded into the ISBN number is the country and a code for the publisher. The serial number is up to the publisher. Unless you get a list out of the publisher (unlikely), you'll have to match title and number yourself. BTW, this scheme also implies that for a single book one can have more then one ISBN number, when it is published in two different countries. As a matter of fact, I have one lying in front of me. It has the ISBN 0-387-97397-4 as well as 3-540-97397-4. The 0 for the USA and 387 for the publisher, Springer Verlag, New York, while in the other number 3 stands for Germany and 540 for Springer Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg. I seem to remember that 90 is the code for the Netherlands. jaap PS. Just in case you want to know, the book that Springer gave serial number 97397 (the 4 is a check digit) is ``Multi-media Document Translation, ODA and the EXPRESS project'', by Jonathan Rosenberg, Mark Sherman, Ann Marks and myself.