Xref: utzoo comp.text:7766 comp.databases:8210 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!pacbell.com!att!cbnewsl!psrc From: psrc@cbnewsl.att.com (Paul S. R. Chisholm) Newsgroups: uiuc.text,comp.text,uiuc.general,comp.databases Subject: Re: ISBN numbers Summary: language-publisher-book#-checkdigit Message-ID: <1990Dec19.030040.27240@cbnewsl.att.com> Date: 19 Dec 90 03:00:40 GMT References: <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM> Followup-To: comp.text,comp.databases Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 29 The original query seemed to be for an ISBN database. Other than buying BOOKS IN PRINT in machine readable form (it's available on CD ROM), I don't think such a database exists. In article <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM>, jaap@mtxinu.COM (Jaap Akkerhuis) writes that a single book can have multiple ISBNs. It's worth pointing out that the hardcover and paperback versions of the same book have different ISBNs. > [My book] 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. I thought the first number was for the *language*, not the country. I could be wrong. The NIH class library book (published in the U.K.) didn't have a hyphen between the publisher and book number, much to my surprise. Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!mtunq!psrc, psrc@mtunq.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind. P.S.: "ISBN number" is redundant; ISBN stands for something like "International Standard Book *Number*". An "ISBN number" is a number number?-)