ISBN Numbers

[RICHARD ROMEO]

Begs the question: how are those numbers determined/formulated?

On  6 Mar 97 at 8:24, Oli Kristjan Armannsson wrote:

>         Hi there,
> 
>         I was checking "Global Books in Print" the other day to see
>         if there
> was an entry for M&D. I checked the ISBN directory and found out
> that they have yet to add the number for  M&D [ISBN 0-8050-3758-6],
> but I did stumble across something that disturbed me. The  ISBN
> numbers surrounding M&D's number refer to the titles:
> [0-8050-3757-8] The Last of How it Was          & [0-8050-3759-4]
> Past Imperfect.
>         Now can this possibly be a coincidence?
> 
---------------------------------------
ISBN consists of 10 digits, seperated into the following parts:

group identifier (1st digit--nat'l, geographic, language or other 
convenient group, english speaking countries use 0 or 1--Pynch would love 
that)

next six digits--publisher id
next two digits--title id
last digit--check digit

bibliogrpahically yours,

Richard Romeo
Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
The Foundation Center-NYC
212-807-2417
rromeo at fdncenter.org