This is an important matter that has created quite a bit of controversy in the industry.  From the press release: The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) announced today the publication of a new Policy Statement detailing best practices for assigning ISBNs to digital products. Developed over the past 18 months within BISG's Identification Committee, BISG Policy Statement POL-1101 addresses the critical need to reduce product identification confusion in the market place in order to provide the best possible consumer-level purchasing experience. BISG encourages all member companies and other industry stakeholders to download the Policy Statement online at http://www.bisg.org/what-we-do-cat-4-policy-statements.php and work toward adopting the suggested...

The Bookseller reports that a Nielsen Book study shows that the number of new books being published every year is steadily rising, due largely to the influence of digital and print-on-demand publishing. Of course, this figure comes from the ISBNs that Nielsen issues; if the number of books published without ISBNs (offered for sale directly via websites, local stores, or other means) has also increased, that might make it even greater. This puts me in mind of the old argument about how the Internet has “killed” the music industry, and the oft-heard retort that, no, it’s just hurting the...

Michael Cairns, Information Media Partners; Scott Lubeck, BISG Data is "horrifying" and is stifling the growth of the industry. A controversial subject so decided to get some hard data by doing a large scale set of interviews. Little support for current ISBN policy, publishers don't think they need them for new digital products; general move to "production" format policy, look at ISBN as guideline not as something that is required; limited business case, little support for ISBN to be assigned to the smallest unit; library supply problematic; continued need for education; limitation of ISBN for future needs; metadata issues If don't...

BookNet Canada has looked at the results of the Book Industry Study Group study on ISBN practices and doesn't like what it sees in terms of industry practice. The results of this research are pretty distressing for someone who works with standards every day, but also (sadly) not at all surprising. ... It’s not our job to tell the industry what to do, but it is our job to provide recommendations , collect feedback, maintain standards, and disseminate this information to all players in the Canadian book industry. So, what can we do better? We can’t provide recommendations until there is an agreed...

Taipei 101 I've only felt a strong earthquake once. I was on the second floor of an engineering building at Stanford, and as soon as the initial jolt shook the building I thought "cool, it's an earthquake!". Then the rolling started. It was only after the shaking was over that I started shaking myself. The feeling of solid ground beneath my feet had been wrenched out of my psyche, leaving me standing on a big bowl of jelly that could start jiggling again any moment. Big earthquakes can cause building damage and collapse....

PersonaNonData published this executive summary of the ebook ISBN study done by the Book Industry Study Group. Here it is (blockquotes omitted): All publishing supply-chain participants want clarity and consistency in applying ISBNs to eBooks and all would like the solution to be defined and agreed by the relevant parties. The ISBN agency is virtually irrelevant to participants and most interviewees – including sophisticated players – do not understand or acknowledge important aspects of the ISBN standard. These aspects include the international community of ISBN countries, the ratification by ISO of the standard and important standard definitions contained in the...

On Publishing Perspectives, independent publisher and e-book consultant Erik Christopher has an article looking at whether to assign separate ISBNs to individual e-book formats, and whether DRMed vs. non-DRMed e-books constitute separate formats. Much of the debate about ISBNs and e-books stems from the use of the word “format.” The question being, when is an e-book in one format, say ePUB, no longer an ePUB? We know, for example, that a Kindle version is a new format, because it is no longer an ePUB file, but a unique version that will only work with...

Wired’s “Gadget Lab” blog has an article (or had an article, anyway; though it’s still in my Google Reader feed, it has vanished entirely from the Wired website—the link to the original article returns a 404) looking at how much publishing business arcana are unexpectedly turning out to matter in the new world of e-book publishing. After touching upon the Wylie/Amazon and Amazon 1984 imbroglios, the Gadget Lab staff mention talking to former book distributor and digital publisher Don Linn about it. Publishing metadata, for instance — things like ISBNs, trim size, etc. —...

Looking for something to read?  Tired of not finding anything or the same old titles you've already read?  You might consider the reworked Open Library, located at http://upstream.openlibrary.org/. If you’ve ever experienced frustration in finding something to read for your device, then this is the site for you!  Don’t jump from app store to app store to publisher’s site and more!  Instead, head on over to the new and improved Open Library and download something today!  With lots of search options and titles galore, you’ll find some great stuff to put on your device. So what about this digital library?  An ongoing...

Publishing Perspectives has an article looking at the current problematic nature of the ISBN system when it comes to e-books. The article is a good summary of the situation as it now stands, summing up the ongoing debate between whether to give each format of an e-book its own separate ISBN, or assign one ISBN to the entire book. Publishers tend to favor the single ISBN approach, while booksellers and wholesalers want one for each format. Perhaps not surprisingly—publishers are the ones who would have to pay for the ISBNs, after all, whereas retailers would get the...

The Book Industry Study Group is reporting that the Agency has issued its position paper and reaffirmed its 2005 recomendation that ISBNs be assigned to different forms of electronic publication. This is a controversial topic, as many epublishers resent the extra expense of additional ISBNs. This expense can climb further if one considers that each version of an ebook, i.e., Epub, Mobi, html, etc. should be assigned a different ISBN. For more information check the article here. Thanks to Resource Shelf for the tip....