Quote:
Originally Posted by poohbear_nc
It would seem workable to have a common 9 or 12 digit base ISBN for an ebook - with an additional last digit/letter changed to reflect the format it's in. If in some fit of logic the last digit/letter were standardized for format, it could make search filters quite effective for sorting by format.
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I agree with this, except I would:
- Extend it to at least 18 characters for the base ISBN. If the ISBN is going to be modified anyway, I think the total number of characters should be increased to accomodate the increasing number of titles released (12 characters allows for only 1 trillion possible numbers).
- In addition to the basic ISBN, I would add at least a three-character alphanumeric id at the end to indicate the general format, and extend it to identify printed books too (as an example, all hardbacks would end with 001, all paperbacks would end in 002, audiobooks on cassette would end in 003, and so on). This would give it room to accomodate 1,000 different formats (including obsolete formats). It would also allow you to easily identify the format of the book.