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From: andyb@dartvax.UUCP (Andy Behrens)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: ISBN Numbers - interpretation?
Message-ID: <2478@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Oct-84 18:53:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.2478
Posted: Mon Oct 15 18:53:20 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Oct-84 19:15:52 EDT
References: <5236@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 17

The interpretation of the ISBN number "0-89141-161-5" is

	0	Geographical region or language
	89141	Publisher
	161	Title
	5	Check digit

The title numbers are assigned arbitrarily by each publisher, so they
have no independent meaning.

Region 0 is "English-speaking countries", I believe.  The grouping
of the digits is variable, so less-widely spoken languages may have
more digits assigned to the region and fewer to the publisher.

		Andy Behrens
		andyb@dartmouth.csnet
		{astrovax,dalcs,decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!andyb