Isbn Thirteen Bug

WardsWiki automatically links 10-digit InternationalStandardBookNumbers numbers written thusly: ISBN 0262510871 . But since 1 Jan 2007 10-digit ISBNs are deprecated in favour of a new 13-digit standard, which WardsWiki doesn't yet recognise: ISBN 978-0262510875 . I know that Wiki is currently (early 2007) semi-mothballed pending a possible redesign, but might it be possible to get a quick fix for this? (It will after all help to keep the affiliate links working...)

Deprecated, but not abolished. You will note the first 10-digit reference still works. For now it seems Amazon is still using both. It has introduced problems like one expressed by a customer:

"I ordered a specific ISBN 10 digit number and the 13 digit ISBN number was shipped to me which was not the book my son needed for his class." - If so, either Amazon made an error or the customer did. DontDoThat.

Books published prior to the 13-digit standard are referred to by their 10-digit code. A 13-digit ISBN for a title is not referring to the same edition or printing as the 10-digit code. -- Untrue. Every 10-digit ISBN has a corresponding 13-digit ISBN - 978 followed by the first nine digits of the ISBN-10 followed by a new check digit. For example, the ISBN of CodeComplete first edition, 1556154844, becomes 978-1556154843. Publishers and wholesalers are instructed to "actively discourag[e the] use" of 10-digit ISBNs - they are deprecated after all. http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/transition.asp .

By 2008 or later, books with only 979-prefixed ISBN-13s will appear. Such ISBNs will have no 10-digit form, so it will be impossible to affiliate-link those books from WardsWiki in its current form.

I wrote a RubyLanguage script which converts ISBN-13 to ISBN-10 (chop off the first three digits, calculate a checksum on the next nine digits). I use it for creating 10-digit affiliate links for new books in BookShelved, a UseModWiki site. These 10-digit links still work as of July 2008. -- ElizabethWiethoff

This works for 978-prefixed ISBN-13s. It won't work for 979-prefixed ISBN-13s when they come out.

Ack!

On June 2009 the first 979-prefixed ISBNs were issued to publishers: http://news.bookweb.org/news/6875.html

I have a book for which I only have the 13 bit ISBN (a 978 one). I have put this page name on its page as a tag so that when this wiki is updated to do the 13 bit ones we can find it. -- JohnFletcher

In the meantime, did you give a complete link to the book instead?
- Good thought - I have done now.
Automatically converting 978-prefixed ISBN-13s to ISBN-10s and vice versa is easy: http://www.isbn.org/converterpub.asp will do it for you.

CategoryBooks