Quote:
Originally Posted by Solitaire1
It is actually much smaller than that. Only three digits are used to identify the book itself, so that gives the same publisher only 1,000 ISBNs for each country code (unless the publisher has more than one publisher code).
After thinking about it, a more workable solution to the problem it could be a universal book ID number (one completely separate from the ISBN) to identify a specific book. When a book is first released it gets an ID number, and all future versions of that book carry the same ID number.
To provide an illustration, the code could be as follows (each part is separated by a period):
- Language Number: A three digit code that indicates the book's language.
- ID Number: A nine digit code (allows for 1,000,000,000 titles) that identifies a specific book.
- Abridgement Number: A one digit code that indicates if the book is/is not an abridgement of the original book (not uncommon with audiobooks).
- Version Code: A three digit number to the specific format (printed hardback, printed paperback, PDF edition, and so on).
Just a thought. What do you think?
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So would the nine digit code identify the book + publisher or other edition information? I ask because a book may have printings from different publishers. You see this a lot with Public Domain books. Since anyone can publish them you will find the same type of format from multiple sources. How many paperback versions of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens have you seen? Lots. Even with ebooks, I could find you several different copies of many classics in the same format put together by different people.