[Old_Gord]

Hey Bob;
Whats the story on some Fox Chapel Pub. books having two ISBN's issued to the same book, almost identical?
I'm thinking of two books, Shipley's latest and Geisler-Moroder's?
.

OG

[BobD]

I'm going to have to check with our book department--I don't have any idea!

Bob

[admin]

The Book Industry will begin using 13 digit ISBN's on Januuary 1, 2007 because the industry is running out of 10 digit ISBN's. Both are being printed during this transition to support retailer databases.

Rob

[BobD]

OG, here is what our Book Editor Gretchen Bacon said (to add to what Rob said).

The book industry is running out of 10-digit ISBNs (usually formatted X-XXXXX-XXX-X). To combat this problem, they’ve decided to go to 13-digit ISBNs. However, this requires everyone involved in the book business (bookstores, publishers, other retailers) to upgrade a number of things, most importantly the software that reads the ISBN. And, once everyone has the software, it will only read 13-digit ISBNs. To make the transition as smooth as possible, the people running this transition decided to give a two year window for the move from 10-digit to 13-digit numbers. So, from Fall 2005 to December 31, 2006, book publishers have been including either only the ISBN-13 (if they have no more 10-digit numbers) or both the ISBN-13 (a converted version of the 10-digit number) and the ISBN-10 to accommodate book sellers with and without upgraded software. Starting January 1, 2007, everyone is required to be upgraded, and we will begin listing only the ISBN-13 as the ISBN.