What is an ISBN and ISSN?
Answer
An ISBN is an International Standard Book Number and an ISSN is an International Standard Serial Number. Both numbers function as a unique identifier for individual monograph and serial titles.
ISBNs were 10 digits in length until the end of December 2006. Beginning on January 1, 2007, ISBNs are now 13 digits in length. Many of our catalog records have both a 10-digit ISBN and the corresponding 13-digit ISBN. The ISBNs in our records usually do not have any hyphens or dashes in the number.
- 10 digit ISBN: 0861878515
- 13 digit ISBN: 9780861878512
ISSNs are 8-digit codes used to identify newspapers, journals, magazines, and periodicals of all kinds. These do have hyphens or dashes separating two groups of 4 digits:
- 0317-8471
- 1050-124X