ISBNs

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique, numerical commercial book identifier, based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created in the UK by the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966. The ISBN can be found on the back of the title page where the copyright and date of publication information is also to be found.



The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and published as an international standard, ISO 2108, in 1970; (however, the 9-digit SBN code was used in the UK until 1974). Currently, the ISO TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for the standard. Since 1 January 2007, International Standard Book Numbers have been of 13 digits, compatible with Bookland EAN-13 barcodes.



Some search engines use a book’s ISBN so if you want a search engine to lead to your book blog it is helpful to put the ISBN on each review. Also, when I tried to download my whole review blog to a bookclub –type site (Goodreads.com) that I was joining it only registered one book on my ‘Books read’ shelf because it only found one ISBN. I am amending that deficiency.