New 979 ISBN prefix pushes mandate

for full ISBN-13 adoption, compliance

The first “979” ISBNs likely will be assigned in second quarter 2008, according to an International ISBN Agency press release -- the agency’s first public announcement of a release date for the 13-digit ISBNs.

Currently, all 13-digit ISBN’s are prefixed by “978”, allowing POS systems to contain both 10- and 13-digit ISBNs for all books. Once 979 prefixes are assigned using 10-digit equivalents for 13-digit ISBNs could result in duplicate coding numbers and supply-chain confusion.

The ISBN agency announcement didn’t specify which country will be allocated the 979 prefixes. The 978 and 979 prefixes are called Bookland prefixes because they indicate the following 10 digits as ISBNs. The ISBN-13 was developed as part of an international standard to ensure POS systems can handle 13-digit Universal Product Codes or European Article Numbers (EANs), similar to UPCs. The larger number is needed to guarantee unique numbers as more codes are assigned.

The U.S. Book Industry Study Group said the coming of 979 prefixes means it’s essential that all book-trade and library systems be able to fully accommodate 13-digit identifiers.

“This is a very important announcement that directly affects the U.S. book industry,” said Michael Healy, BISG executive director. “It marks a decisive point in the transition to ISBN-13, which was to be completed on January 1 of this year, and makes it critical that all systems are now configured to handle the full 13-digit ISBN.”

Brian Green, International ISBN Agency executive director, said, “The arrival of 979-prefixed ISBNs means that everyone in the book supply chain, including publishers, distributors, booksellers and libraries, will have to make certain that their systems can deal with the full 13-digit ISBN.”

The International ISBN Agency also announced that country prefixes and publisher prefixes will change in the 979-prefixed range of numbers as the system is modified to reduce wasted numbers. National prefixes will be introduced rather than the language-based group prefixes on which the system initially was based.

Further information on the ISBN-13 transition can be obtained from the U.S. ISBN Agency by e-mailing isbn-san@bowker.com or by visiting the Book Industry Study Group’s comprehensive ISBN-13 website at http://www.bisg.org/isbn-13/index.html. The Christian Retail Solutions Committee also has information on the ISBN-13 at www.Christiansupplychain.com.