🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <AGLEW.90Dec12232240@cobra.crhc.uiuc.edu> aglew@crhc.uiuc.edu (Andy Glew) writes:
 > 
 > Is there any way that I can convert ISBN numbers into more meaningful
 > author/title lists, and save myself a bit more typing?

Not really, unless you type it in. As far as I remember, the only
thing coded into the ISBN number is the country and a code for the
publisher. The serial number is up to the publisher. Unless you get a
list out of the publisher (unlikely), you'll have to match title and
number yourself.

BTW, this scheme also implies that for a single book one can have
more then one ISBN number, when it is published in two different
countries.  As a matter of fact, I have one lying in front of me.
It 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.

	jaap

PS. Just in case you want to know, the book that Springer gave
   serial number 97397 (the 4 is a check digit) is ``Multi-media
   Document Translation, ODA and the EXPRESS project'', by Jonathan
   Rosenberg, Mark Sherman, Ann Marks and myself.