ISBN system changing
The ISBN system is being updated, changing from 10 digits to 13. The ISBN assignment structure, divided on digit boundaries into regional and publisher fields, somewhat resembles IP addresses, especially in the old class-ful system. Watching this change may be interesting to people who have been watching the IPv4 → IPv6 change (or lack thereof).
On the other hand, this change isn't really such a large expansion; it's really just integrating the EAN "978 bookland" code into the ISBN proper, and claiming part of the current "979 musicland" area for books as well. This seems exceedingly shortsighted; it doesn't even double the range of legal ISBNs, since some of the 979 space is already in use.
2003-03-05 01:57:00 | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | CopyrightCartel::Books
