8. Administration of ISBN

8.1. General

The administration of the ISBN system is carried out on three levels: international, group and publisher levels.

8.2. International administration

The international administration and coordination of the ISBN system is done through the

International ISBN Agency
Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
- Preussischer Kulturbesitz -
D-10772 Berlin, GERMANY
Tel: (+49 30) 266 24 96, 266 23 38, 266 24 98
Fax: (+49 30) 266 23 78
e-mail: isbn@sbb.spk-berlin.de
URL: http://isbn-international.org

The International ISBN Agency is assisted by an advisory panel consisting of representatives from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Publishers Association (IPA), the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), and individual ISBN group agencies.
The International ISBN Agency organizes an annual International ISBN Advisory Panel Meeting at which representatives of the group agencies and standards experts discuss current issues of the ISBN system. The advisory panel has created an Executive Committee consisting of representatives of five agencies in order to bridge the gaps in between the annual meetings.

The principal functions of the International ISBN Agency are:

• To promote, coordinate and supervise the world-wide use of the ISBN system.
• To approve the definition and structure of group agencies.
• To advise on the establishment and functioning of group agencies.
• To allocate group identifiers to group agencies.
• To advise group agencies on the allocation of ISBN publisher identifiers.
• To publish the assigned group numbers and publisher identifiers in up-to-date form.

8.3. Group administration

The administration of the ISBN system within a publisher group is the responsibility of an ISBN group agency, which may operate on a national or regional basis, or within a linguistic group, according to local needs.
Within a group there may be several national agencies, e.g. group identifier 0 and 1 have separate agencies in Australia, English speaking Canada, Gibraltar, New Zealand, South Africa, Swaziland, United Kingdom, United States, and Zimbabwe.

The functions of a group/national agency are:

• To promote participation in the ISBNs system within its area.
• To manage and administer the affairs of the group.
• To decide, in co-operation with publishers and their representative agencies, the range of publisher identifiers required.
• To allocate publisher identifiers to eligible publishers and maintain a register of publishers and their identifiers.
• To decide, in consultation with publishers and their representative agencies, which publishers will assign numbers to their own titles, and which will have numbers assigned to their titles by the group agency.
• To advise publishers on the correct and proper implementation of the system.
• To provide materials and resources that ensure the proper implementation of the ISBN standard.
• To make available computer print-outs of ISBNs to publishers numbering their own books with check digits already calculated.
• To inform publishers of any invalid or duplicate ISBN assigned by them.
• To provide technical advice and assistance to publishers and ensure that standards and approved procedures are observed in the group.
• To encourage and promote the Bookland EAN bar code format.
• To encourage and promote the importance of the ISBN for a proper listing of titles with book listing and bibliographical agencies.
• To maintain liaison with all elements of the book industry and introduce new publishers to the system.
• To assist the book industry in the use of the ISBN in computer systems.
• To handle relations with the International ISBN Agency on behalf of all the publishers in the group.
• To keep and make available the files of assigned publisher identifiers and title numbers. If the National Bibliography fulfils the latter task, the agency does not have to duplicate this effort.
• To report regularly to the International ISBN Agency.

8.4. Publisher administration

Publishers are responsible for assigning title identifiers to the individual items they publish and for ensuring the application of pertinent regulations.

Upon request they may receive a publisher identifier from a group agency and a printout of the ISBNs that are available to them in combination with the allocated publisher identifier.

A publisher will be assigned a publisher identifier by a national group agency which will determine the range of title identifiers available to the publisher. The number of title identifiers will depend on the length of the publisher prefix assigned. The publisher should ensure that the group agency has as much information as possible about all available backlists and should advise the group agency of all present and future publications in order to enable the assignment of a suitably sized publisher identifier.

Publishers are encouraged to contact book listing and bibliographical agencies for publication of their titles and ISBNs assigned to those titles.

Further information and detailed instructions are available from the ISBN group agencies and from the International ISBN Agency.