ISBN

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ISBN is the abbreviation of International Standard Book Number, an international code number to uniquely identify books. This can be either 10 or 13 characters. ISBN-10 was in use between 1970 and 2006. Books published from 2007 on carry an ISBN-13.

Some books between 1966 and the mid-1970s have 9-digit SBNs. Convert to ISBN by adding a zero to the front.

Be aware that some early editions do not have the SBN recorded inside the book. They can usually be found on the spine of the book. Some also have the price of the book added as a 3-digit number to the end of the SBN, resulting in a 12-digit number. You can usually check this by comparing the last three digits to the price (e.g. 050 equals 50¢)

[edit] UPC to ISBN conversion

Some US and Canadian books have a UPC barcode on the back rather than an ISBN. This can be converted to an ISBN using the following UPC vendor code to ISBN vendor code translations. (This list is incomplete.) Cuecats can capture the UPC values, which can be converted to ISBN for LT entry (if you're a whizz with MS Excel - Patentnonsense describes his efforts in this thread).

[edit] References

• The International ISBN Agency
• Wikipedia page