The first number field is the area code, also known as the group identifier. The shortest number is one digit, and the longest number is five digits, generally taking into account the language, country and region. The countries and regions that voluntarily apply to participate in ISBN system are divided into several regions, and each region has a fixed code: 0, 1 for English. The countries that use these two codes are Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Britain, the United States, Zimbabwe and so on. Stands for French, which is used in French-speaking areas of France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Canada and Switzerland; 3 stands for German and is used in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland; 4 is the code of Japanese publications; 5 is the code for Russian publications; 7 is the code used in China publications.
The group number is divided into five grades, with the length of 1-5 digits, and the specific setting range is as follows:
Number of digits of group number setting range Number of groups that can be allocated Number of publications allowed per group Number (category) Total number of publications per file (category)
One bit 0 ~ 781800 million
Two digits 80~94 15 0. 1 billion10.5 billion.
Three digits 950 ~ 99748 0.0 1.0048 billion
Four digits 9980 ~ 9989100.001.01100 million.
Five digits 99900 ~ 99999100 0.0001.005438+0 billion.
Total181100 billion.
The second number is the publisher identifier, which is assigned by the ISBN center of the country or region. The allowable value range is 2~5 digits. The bigger the publishing house, the more books it publishes, and the smaller the number.
The third paragraph is that the book number (title identifier) is given by the publishers themselves, and the book number of each publisher is fixed. The shortest one and the longest six. The bigger the publishing house, the more books published and the longer the serial number.
The tenth digit is the parity bit of the electronic computer. Fix one bit, the starting and ending number is 0~ 10, and 10 is replaced by X.
Four numbers should be connected by a hyphen (-) (for example: 2-02-033598-0). However, some library integration systems can't automatically assign hyphens, and library catalogers don't know much about the segmentation of ISBN, so people often omit hyphens in bibliographic records (for example, 2020335980).