🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Dec19.030040.27240@cbnewsl.att.com> psrc@cbnewsl.att.com (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
>In article <1990Dec17.205911.15073@mtxinu.COM>, jaap@mtxinu.COM (Jaap
>Akkerhuis) writes that a single book can have multiple ISBNs.  It's
>worth pointing out that the hardcover and paperback versions of the
>same book have different ISBNs.
>
>> [My book] has the ISBN 0-387-97397-4 as well as 3-540-97397-4.
>
>> The 0 for the USA and 387 for the publisher, Springer Verlag, New
>> York, while in the other number 3 stands for Germany and 540 for
>> Springer Verlag Berlin-Heidelberg.  I seem to remember that 90 is
>> the code for the Netherlands.
>
>I thought the first number was for the *language*, not the country.  I
>could be wrong.

Well, language is right, but it is usually the publisher's primary
language. In the above example, the book seems to be published by
Springer NY and Springer Berlin simultaneously, so while it is
actually in English, it has both an English and a German ISBN.

Likewise, if some publisher in the Netherlands publishes an
occasional book in English or German, the ISBN will still start with
the Dutch code.

It goes without saying that different editions of the same work will
have different ISBNs -- actually, a change in price should cause a
change in ISBN as well, since the ISBN is supposed to UNIQUELY
IDENTIFY a book as to ALL DETAILS -- publisher, title, author,
binding, revision, etc., and price.
--
W.N.Paul, Int. Institute f. Applied Systems Analysis, A-2361 Laxenburg--Austria
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