Striking Thirteen

The most elemental identifier of a book, the international standard book number (ISBN) allows publishers, booksellers, and libraries to label works in a consistent way and to distinguish not only among different titles but also among different versions of the same title, such as newer editions, various bindings, audio products, and electronic versions.

This time next year, all ISBNs will be 13 digits long. The publisher prefixes may change; the numbers will be hyphenated differently. We cannot overstate the impact of this change for all of us who transact in the book industry. Libraries (and vendors) should not assume that it only affects the acquisitions department. While the impact may be greatest there, the change will affect everything, from cataloging records to interlibrary loan (ILL) to printed bibliographies to OPAC dust jacket images. The transition from ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 is our Y2K, and librarians have plenty of questions.

Why the change?

Ten digits have been good enough for ISBNs pretty much as long as they have been around (since 1970), so why do we need 13 now? The two main reasons cited are to make more ISBNs available and to conform better to worldwide product numbering systems.

As the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) notes on its web site, “The ISBN standard is being changed to expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and alleviate numbering shortages in certain areas of the world.” Altering the number to 13 digits “will fully align the numbering system...with the global EAN.UCC identification system...used to identify most other consumer goods.”

You can think of the transition as similar to the phone number changes that many of us have experienced in recent years. With multiple land lines, fax machines, and cell phones, the need for more phone numbers has increased. The telephone industry responded by creating new area codes and moving to ten-digit local phone numbers in some metropolitan areas. Similarly, the explosion of alternate formats for the same intellectual property—particularly in the electronic age—and the growth of publishing worldwide has led to a shortage of ISBNs. The only way to create more is to make them longer, and while they are getting longer, it makes sense to bring them into conformity with the 13-digit EAN.UCC (European Article Numbering–Uniform Code Council) system, the number at the base of the barcode on the back cover of most books and other products.

Moving to 13 digits ensures that we have plenty of ISBNs with which to sell books for years to come; fitting ISBNs into standard product number systems makes it easier for books to flow through the world marketplace.

How will this happen?

The next question, of course, is how? What does a 13-digit ISBN look like? All existing ISBN-10s can be translated into ISBN-13s by adding 978 at the beginning, using the first nine digits of the ISBN-10 with appropriate hyphens, and recalculating the final check digit.

ISBN-10: 1-55853-234-X

Corresponding ISBN-13: 978-1-55853-234-2

Conversely, ISBN-13s beginning with 978 can be recalculated to ISBN-10s. Once the supply of 978-prefix ISBNs is depleted, publishers will begin assigning ISBNs with a 979 prefix, thus effectively doubling the pool of available numbers. The new ISBN-13 is precisely the same number as the EAN.

It is crucial to understand that while ISBN-10s and 978-prefix ISBN-13s can be translated into each other, ISBN-13s beginning with 979 cannot be recalculated to an ISBN-10 counterpart. The BISG pamphlet ISBN-13 for Dummies explains it this way:

“Sometime in 2007, Publisher A may have a novel with a 978 ISBN-13 and Publisher B may have a computer book with a 979 ISBN-13, with both numbers calculating back to the same 10-digit ISBN. But, because no two books can have the same ISBN, one of the 10-digit numbers would obviously be wrong. And, because the two ISBNs would be duplicates, they would no longer serve as unique identifiers. This duplication could cause extreme complications within the supply chain.”

When the first 979-prefix ISBNs are assigned, we will have our first books that cannot be identified or purchased with a ten-digit ISBN. That is the time and scenario for which all of our systems must be ready.

The sky is falling? Get ready

Publishers are already publishing books imprinted with ISBN-13s; ISBN-10s will be supported until January 1, 2007. At that point, all ISBN-10s will officially change to ISBN-13s for transaction purposes, and all orders, claims, and invoices should use ISBN-13s. ISBNs with 979 prefixes will most likely begin to be issued in the United States around 2008 or 2009, although certain foreign imports may come into this country bearing 979 prefixes by mid-2007.

We hope that book vendors and systems vendors will do most of the preparation for their library customers. Book vendors are reworking their internal and external systems in order to transact in ISBN-13s, both on the publisher side and the library side of the wholesale equation. Likewise, systems vendors are rewriting software to take care of the bulk of transition issues.

Librarians must become educated about the transition and be sure that their vendors are prepared. Recall the transition period leading up to Y2K. Organizations inventoried their systems to find all instances where the year was recorded with two digits and implemented changes to reexpress it with four digits. Similarly, libraries should inventory all systems and databases to determine where and how ISBNs are stored and used. For every instance, there should be a solution either locally programmed or from a particular vendor-partner.

Librarians may want to consult the ISBN-13 Readiness Checklists at the BISG web site—these are designed for publishers, systems vendors, retailers, and manufacturers—to get some idea of the areas that are affected by a major identifier change. We have included a checklist specifically for libraries (see below).

What should we ask our book vendors?

Librarians should question their vendors closely. It is reasonable to expect that book vendors should be able to accept orders with ISBN-13s by January 1, 2007 at the latest. Their online systems should be searchable by both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 as soon as possible. You'll need to agree on the format and placement of ISBNs in data that is exchanged between the book vendor and library, such as MARC records, spreadsheets, or other types of files. It is important that neither the vendor nor the library change its output to ISBN-13 without alerting the other to guarantee that they are ready to accept the new format. Ask your book vendors these specific questions:

• Can we search the vendor database by both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13?
• Are both the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 displayed in your database? How about on printed products such as status reports, notification slips, and invoices?
• When must we begin sending orders with ISBN-13s?
• Will there be any changes to cataloging records or other MARC records you supply?
• Will there be any changes to electronic invoicing?
• Will we need to retest any of our electronic ordering, invoicing, or cataloging arrangements? If so, what does that involve?

What should we ask our systems vendors?

Libraries rely on their systems vendors to provide new software releases that accommodate ISBN-13. Librarians must understand the process of updating not only the acquisitions module but also the OPAC, ILL, and any other areas where ISBNs are searched, indexed, or stored.

Most likely, systems vendors will not eradicate ISBN-10s that are stored in cataloging records: they are printed on books in libraries; they are in acquisitions audit records; and they are printed in bibliographies and finding aids. Instead, most systems vendors will provide some sort of translation algorithm, either on-the-fly or across the entire bibliographic database, to recompute the ISBN-10s and add ISBN-13s to records. Here are some specific questions to ask your systems vendor:

• Will searches handle both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13?
• Can the system recognize an ISBN-10 and its corresponding ISBN-13 as identical for tasks such as bibliographic record overlay, duplication control, and merging of federated search results?
• How do we order an ISBN-10 title when the vendor wants an ISBN-13?
• How are EDI (electronic data interchange) transactions being handled?
• Can the cataloging module handle ISBN-13s in the appropriate MARC field?
• Can the system validate ISBN-10s and ISBN-13s?
• What about the links to Syndetic Solutions, Content Café, or other external content vendors?
• Will barcode scanners be affected in any way?
• What release is needed, and when will it be available?

Do we send BISAC orders?

Unlike libraries using electronic ordering formats such as X12 or EDIFACT, libraries placing BISAC electronic orders will need to make a substantial change to their procedures. The BISAC e-order format is used by a number of integrated library systems. Innovative Interfaces customers that email orders to their vendors are most likely using the BISAC format. Other older library systems and many bookstores rely on BISAC ordering as well. BISAC was one of the first EDI formats and has served the book industry well for many years. However, ISBN-13 will make the BISAC format obsolete. The structure of the BISAC order cannot accommodate any increase to the length of the ISBN, so libraries will be unable to transmit the complete ISBN-13 in a BISAC order. Fortunately, systems vendors are aware of this issue, and most provide an alternate electronic order format to which the library can switch. Implementing the new format will take time, since it involves obtaining and installing software from your systems vendor and testing it with your book vendor. The sooner you begin preparing to transition away from BISAC, the better.

What about MARC? And OCLC?

Like ISBN-10s, ISBN-13s are recorded in the MARC 020 field. During the transition period, libraries are likely to see pairs of 020 fields in cataloging records, one with the ISBN-13 and one with the ISBN-10. The Library of Congress (LC) has created documentation on ISBN-13 accommodations:

“For CIP and other bibliographic records created after October 1, 2004 and before January 1, 2007, LC will group pairs of ISBN 13 and ISBN 10 by manifestation in repeated MARC 21 020 fields, with the ISBN 13 input preceding the ISBN 10, each number qualified as appropriate.”

Institutions using OCLC as their source for cataloging records face an additional wrinkle during the transition period. OCLC's systems cannot yet accommodate ISBN-13s in the 020 field, so they are storing ISBN-13s in a MARC 024 field, with a first indicator of 3.

Library of Congress ISBN interim pair:
020: : |a 9780374104436
020: : |a 0374104433

OCLC ISBN interim pair:
020: : |a 0374104433
024:3 : |a 9780374104436

Glenn Patton, OCLC's director for WorldCat quality management, indicated recently that OCLC is nearing a solution and more details will be announced soon. Once OCLC's systems have been upgraded, the firm will switch all ISBN-13s back into the proper 020 fields. That will correct the records in WorldCat but will not change the records that have already been downloaded to libraries' local systems. Individual libraries will be responsible for updating those records to move ISBN-13s into the MARC 020 field; OCLC is also exploring ways to deliver converted records. Why not just leave them in the 024 field? Many systems currently rely on the ISBN being in the 020 field for it to be output into electronic orders and to be indexed properly.

Libraries are not immune to the changes that ISBN-13 will bring to the book world. The clock is ticking and going to strike 13 for all of us. For the most part, everything will continue normally—that is, until a book is published with a 979-prefix ISBN-13. At that point, any deficiencies in library, book vendor, or systems software quickly will become apparent. Making a thorough inventory of where ISBNs affect your systems and workflows and partnering closely with your vendors to address the change will help ease the transition. As with Y2K, if we are all prepared, the move should appear effortless. If we are all prepared.