[uf-new] ISBN, ISSN and the case for moving forward now

[Andy Mabbett]

In message <77755A4C-B488-4B99-B1E1-04F94843FEB5 at deri.org>, Alexander 
Graf <alexander.graf at deri.org> writes

 >>>I want you to know that the ISBN format has changed as of
 >>>Januar 1st 2007. In your test cases, the ISBN numbers are ten
 >>>digits, which is *no longer valid*!

>On 18.03.2007, at 13:53, Andy Mabbett wrote:
>
>> It's my understanding that 10-digit ISBNs (a published in millions of 
>>books and journals and many thousands, if not millions, of websites) 
>>are still valid. Can you provide specific a citation otherwise, please?

>the  citation was in my mail:
>
>> As of January 1, 2007, all book and book-related products must carry 
>>13-digit ISBNs.
>>
>> All 10-digit ISBNs in circulation will have the 3-digit EAN prefix 
>>"978" added (which currently represents the book industry). This 13- 
>>digit ISBN is already represented, and will be identical, to   current 
>>EAN bar codes carrying ISBN with the "978" prefix.
>>
>> All 10-digit ISBNs must be converted to the 13-digit format and all 
>>systems will need to accommodate its use in this format. To easily 
>>convert your 10-digit ISBNs to 13-digits use a conversion utility.
>
>http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/ISBN.html
>
>or: http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp

Thank you, but I asked for a *specific* citation, such as you have now 
provided, AS far as  can see, none of the support your claim that the 
ISBN's on the sample page I provided are "*no longer valid*".

>Of course systems should still read 10 digit ISBNs

Quite.

>, but only 13 digit  ISBNs are issued.

>Also a extension which reads ISBN numbers  should/must
>automatically convert any 10 digit ISBNs to their 13 digits  equivalent 
>for use with other
>systems.

That seems reasonable; provided that the other systems are already 
accepting 13-fdigit ISBNs.

>I think disallowing 10 digit ISBNs in the microformat is not a good 
>idea as there may be
>websites that want to mark up their existing ISBN lists.

There are any which already do; it is not for us to require people to 
amend the data they validly publish.

-- 
Andy Mabbett
                  <http://www.pigsonthewing.org.uk/uFsig/>

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