ISBN is an acronym for International Standard Book Number, is a unique 13-digit numeric code used to identify the commercial books. Earlier, ISBN consisted of 10 digits till December 2006. After 1 January 2007, this was increased to 13. The ISBN is allotted after calculation with a secret mathematical formula. Moreover, they consist of a ‘check-digit’ to validate the number.
Every ISBN comprises 5 essential components and each segment is separated with spaces (below barcode) or hyphens (above barcode). The 5 elements of ISBN code have been given below:
Cover Page of the book, Title of the book
It is mandatory for all the book publishing houses to display ISBN number on all the books published by them.
An ISBN number on a book gives an assurance that the book is truly genuine and is not plagiarised, pirated, offensive or spurious.
ISBN registration process is one-time process. The publisher of books need not apply for renewal of ISBN registration.
On searching ISBN number of a book on ISBN portal one can find all details of the book e.g. name and details of the book and its author.
These are databases are set up by ISBN to help libraries and book trade organizations to give a timely update to the customers.
ISBN Enables a publisher to specify a particular edition of a book and a uniform format to publish that particular book.