The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique international identifier for books or other monographic publications, approved as an ISO standard (ISO 2108: 2005), which facilitates its circulation in the publishing market.
In other words, it is a standardized code that uniquely identifies the works intended for sale, which facilitates commercial transactions between customers, libraries, publishers and other agents involved in the commercial circuit of the book.
From January 1 of 2007, the ISBN digit has a numeric structure consisting of 13 digits (instead of the previous 10 digits), grouped into the following blocks:
| Bloc | Example |
|---|---|
| Prefix identifier for the book sector | 978 |
| Identifier of the national, geographic or linguistic group of publishers | 97884- |
| Editorial prefix that identifies the specific editorial of each group | 84369- |
| Title number that identifies the title or edition of a work published by a specific publisher or author / publisher | 84-369-3532- |
|
Control digit that guarantees the correct use of the entire system |
978-84-369-3532-5 |
The structure of 13 figures was implanted by the exhaustion in some parts of the world of the possible numerical combinations (as a result of the increasing number of publishers and existing publications). When the ISBN prefixed with 978 is depleted, the 979 prefix will also be entered.
In this way, the ISBN becomes identical to the EAN 13 "Bookland" code that appears printed in the bar code of the back cover of the books.
The ISBN facilitates the circulation and commercial operations of the monographs in the publishing market, since it allows to identify the title and the edition of a work published by a certain publisher or author / editor, as well as to use the Database of books published in Spain or the ISBN database (international scope) to locate it.
In relation to the request of an ISBN and taking into account its purpose:
ISBN codes with prefixes assigned to the UPC They are managed directly by the Digital Polytechnic Initiative (IDP), for those works that you edit and / or distribute as a further task of the editing process.
Ana Latorre: ana.latorre
upc.edu
Authors or authors / publishers may request an author's ISBN as per the table below:
| Non-commercial works |
Authors who need to obtain an ISBN for non-commercial works to meet the requirement required by some academic evaluation agencies (merit contests) may request it according to procedure and rates established by the ISBN Agency. |
|---|---|
| Realty works | People or institutions that are not publishers and publish a work for commercial purposes, can request a ISBN of author / editor at the Agency, according to procedure and rates established |
