ISBN - What do I need it for?

[dagdrivaren]

I'll begin by appologizing if the thread is placed in the wrong subforum.

I'm new to e-books and new to calibre and I'm trying to begin to figure out how to organize my library with the program (as well as figure out how it works). Obviously I want to make the process of adding new books as quick and simple as possible.
And my (possibly very silly) question is: Why do I need the ISBN numbers and when would I use them?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dagdrivaren

I'll begin by appologizing if the thread is placed in the wrong subforum.

I'm new to e-books and new to calibre and I'm trying to begin to figure out how to organize my library with the program (as well as figure out how it works). Obviously I want to make the process of adding new books as quick and simple as possible.
And my (possibly very silly) question is: Why do I need the ISBN numbers and when would I use them?

ISBN (and some of the other identifiers) clearly identify the version of the book. They were invented by the Book industry to make ordering less error prone (wrong print version/similar title).
Later ISBN13 became the core of the Barcode (978ISBN) used by retail.

ISBN helps retrieve the proper metadata and cover without all the false choices that you see when no ISBN (identifiers) was supplied

When I used calibre to document my paperback Library (900+) back in 2010, I used the Add From ISBN feature of Add. I used a hand barcode scanner to read thos that had Barcodes, This reduced the hand work by 1/2. About 1/2 of those had ISBN's that had to be hand keyed (no barcode), the rest were so old that they had to be identified bu Author-Title (tedious to say the least)

Bottom line:
ISBN helps get metadata faster (and correct) if supplied, but in many cases, is not needed to GET initial metadata.

[dagdrivaren]

Oh, of course! It seems pretty obvious now that you mention it. Thanks alot!

*edit* Actually, I have a follow up question, if I may. Some books have dashes in the ISBN number, and some don't; is there any practical reason for either (with or without) to be preferable to use in calibre? I'm guessing it doesn't matter in any way, but I figured I'd ask.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by dagdrivaren

*edit* Actually, I have a follow up question, if I may. Some books have dashes in the ISBN number, and some don't; is there any practical reason for either (with or without) to be preferable to use in calibre? I'm guessing it doesn't matter in any way, but I figured I'd ask.

It is a matter of visual preference. The dashes help you distinguish the sections better; computers need no help for that, they are very smart (for a given value of "smart").

[theducks]

Another ISBN dash trivia point

the number of digits after the first one (language:always a single digit), reflects the (initial) size of the Publishing House
0-2- is a BPH
0-1234567-8-x is a vanity press