[Koha] ISBN problem

[Weinheimer Jim]

Hello,

I am a librarian, so I know a little about ISBNs. ISBNs can be confusing because they were designed by the publishers for their purposes, while librarians simply decided to copy the ISBN number into their records. For cataloging purposes (at least in the rules that I have worked with), ISBNs do not determine editions. For example, ISBNs for paperback and hardback editions are always different (this is very important information for publishers!), but for catalogers, there is a rule that a difference in binding does not constitute a new edition. Therefore, this can be confusing.

Also, it has turned out that some publishers have been reusing old ISBNs since they are running out of numbers(!). Also, there are new uses foreseen for ISBNs, and as a result, there are now 13 digit ISBNs. So, today one book will have all kinds of ISBN: hardback, paperback, 13 digit, 10 digit, sets vs. individual volumes, and so on.

If that's not enough, ISSNs have similar problems!

As a question: isn't it possible to write a perl script that, when searching ISBNs, will ignore everything except the numbers? This would be a good feature.

Regards,
James Weinheimer
Director of Library and Information Services
American University of Rome
Rome, Italy


> Thursday, August 17, 2006     02:31 CDT
> 
> Salut Greg!
> 
> >From just a quick look at what you said, it looks like someone's import of
> a Z39.50 search might have pulled up a record for another edition of the same
> work.
> 
> The second ISBN noted, as I am sure your librarian pointed out, is not in the
> format that we cataloguing staff would naturally use (hyphens are not encoded
> in 020).
> 
> An interesting occurence: do let the listserv know if you find the ultimate
> cause.
> 
> Bon courage!
> 
> Steven F. Baljkas
> library tech at large
> Koha neophyte
> Winnipeg, MB, Canada
> 
> P.S. As an afterthought: despite the International in ISBN, however, there are
> cases where the same edition published in different locations somehow ends up
> with different ISBNs. We had one such at a military library where I once had a
> contract and the publisher tried to have things 'fixed' so we ended up with 3
> ISBNs for 1 edition of the same book.
> 
> 
> ============================================================
> From: Greg Vickers <daehenoc at optusnet.com.au>
> Date: 2006/08/17 Thu AM 12:38:49 CDT
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: [Koha] ISBN problem
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I manage the system which hosts Koha for the French cultural center in
> Brisbane, Alliance Francase. (http://library.afbrisbane.com) I don't
> manage the information in Koha; I installed Koha and manage the server,
> I am not a librarian!
> 
> This installation has been up and running for about three months and
> they have a librarian on-site who is in the process of adding all their
> library material to Koha. He's come across a strange problem in the last
> couple of days:
> 
> Search the public catalog for ISBN 2914935692 and it will return a
> record for "Comptines" with a subtitle of "méthode de
> franðcais". He did
> not enter that subtitle, so that's the first strange thing (inserted via
> z39.50??) and the second strange thing is that this record shows a
> different ISBN: 2-03-870211X!
> 
> The librarian has a suspicion that running the rebuildnonmarc.pl script
> may help. I read the description of what that script does and it's all
> Greek to me.
> 
> Would that script help, or is this problem being caused by something else?
> 
> Thanks,
> Greg
> 
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