Xref: utzoo comp.text:7772 comp.databases:8219 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!cernvax!chx400!cgch!wtho From: wtho@ciba-geigy.ch (Tom Hofmann) Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.databases Subject: Re: ISBN numbers Message-ID: <1990Dec19.094202.7189@ciba-geigy.ch> Date: 19 Dec 90 09:42:02 GMT References: <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM> Sender: news@ciba-geigy.ch (USENET News Agent) Organization: Ciba-Geigy AG, Basel, Switzerland Lines: 26 Nntp-Posting-Host: cgchd2 In article <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM> jaap@mtxinu.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) writes: | As far as I remember, the only |thing coded into the ISBN number is the country ... | |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. It is not the country but the language which is coded in the first digit(s): 0 - English 1 - English 2 - French 3 - German etc. In some cases (international publishers) it can happen that the language code does not reflect the language of the book. Tom Hofmann wtho@ciba-geigy.ch