Wikipedia:ISBN

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The MediaWiki software automatically recognizes inline International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs); for example: the wikitext ISBN 978-0-12-345678-9 becomes ISBN 978-0-12-345678-9 which corresponds to Special:BookSources/9780123456789. (This is a form of WikiMagic.)

Types

ISBNs now come in two styles, containing 10 digits or 13 digits, respectively (corresponding to the above "ISBN-10:" and "ISBN-13:" numbers). Please use the 13-digit one if available (if nowhere else, it is written under the barcode: the hyphenation will be 978-, or in future 979-, then the same as in the 10-digit ISBN, but the last digit is different for ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, as they use different checksum algorithms).

You can convert any ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 automatically with either of the following tools:

Stylistically, please:

  • Use 13-digit ISBNs, if available, as these are now standard as of January 1, 2007 and issued to new books.
  • Use dashes if they are included, as they divide the number into meaningful parts; the placement of dashes varies between books.

The MediaWiki software only recognizes "ISBN" followed by a space, and then the number. Spaces and hyphens within the number are not a problem (including hyphens is preferred if their proper placement is known), but ISBN numbers starting with "ISBN-10:" and "ISBN-13:" are not automatically recognized by the MediaWiki software unless "-10:" and "-13:" are removed. The actual ISBN starts after the colon for "ISBN-10:" and "ISBN-13:" numbers. There is no need to add quotation marks or wikicode brackets of any kind.

Here is an example of a book listing. Look on that page under "product details." There one can find these two ISBNs for that book:

ISBN-10: 1413304540
ISBN-13: 978-1413304541
  • ISBN 1413304540   produces ISBN 1413304540
  • ISBN 978-1413304541   produces ISBN 978-1413304541

Using "Click to Look Inside!" (a feature of the listing available above the cover picture) reveals that the proper dash placement is:

ISBN-10: 1-4133-0454-0
  • ISBN 1-4133-0454-0   produces ISBN 1-4133-0454-0
  • ISBN 978-1-4133-0454-1   produces ISBN 978-1-4133-0454-1

If the type of ISBN must be specified, the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 templates may be used.

In tables (or other applications) where the letters ISBN would be redundant the ISBNT template may be used instead.

ISBN links and search

In addition to identifying (a particular edition of) a book, ISBNs allow one to search for the book, both at libraries and bookstores.

You can enter an ISBN number on this Wikipedia ISBN search page. Spaces and hyphens in the ISBN do not matter.

ISBN links, or the ISBN search, take users to a special book source page, Wikipedia:Book sources. The page contains links to library catalogs and bookstores where one may search for the book corresponding to the ISBN. Note that you can also link directly to the [[Special:BookSources/...]] page — this may occasionally be useful when appearance is an issue. For example; one of the above ISBN could be searched with this wikilink: Special:BookSources/9781413304541

Uses and limitations of ISBNs

ISBNs only identify a particular edition of a book, and a reader with only an ISBN will not see the full range of versions of the book.

Please do not use ISBNs alone to identify books: add a proper citation as well as the ISBN. Also note that ISBNs are not required of citations; popular citation styles like Chicago, MLA, and APA do not use ISBNs. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style, Wikipedia:Cite your sources.

To suggest additions to the page, see Wikipedia talk:Book sources.

Note that books before about 1970 usually do not have an ISBN (although if published in the UK or maybe the U.S. they may have an SBN). One place to get the numbers is the Library of Congress catalog, although this will tend to give an American ISBN over, say, an Indian or Australian one. For a Canadian number, you can use the Canadian ISBN Service System -CISS.

Also, note that a registered ISBN, even one which appears with a corresponding book page on a major book distributor database such as Amazon.com, is not definite proof that such a book exists. The ISBN is assigned before the book is actually produced, so the publisher can advertise it — but not all such plans come to fruition, any more than in other enterprises. In addition, ISBN and Amazon.com registration seems to have been abused in attempted hoaxes on Wikipedia in the past. National library catalog systems are worth checking: if a book is published in the UK, it has to be sent to the British Library, and if the British Library includes physical dimensions of a book in their catalog system, there's a fair chance it actually exists!

Books are, of course, an excellent source of their own ISBNs; however, a tiny proportion are printed wrongly.

SBNs: a precursor to ISBNs

Before ISBNs were created, there was the Standard Book Number (SBN). To turn an SBN into an ISBN, simply add a preceding zero. So SBN 670459046 becomes ISBN 0670459046.

ISBN-related errors on WikiProject Check Wikipedia

See also
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