How to Look Up a Book By the ISBN Number
The term "ISBN" is an abbreviation for "International Standard Book Number," which is an international identification system for books. Each country has one specified ISBN seller, and for the U.S., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam, the authorized seller for ISBNs is the U.S. ISBN Agency. Due to the standardization of book codes worldwide, it is easy to locate any book with an ISBN using search engines provided by Worldcat, Amazon and Google.
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Instructions
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Components of New and Old ISBN Numbers
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International search engines have replaced regional library card catalogs. Prior to 2007, each ISBN consisted of 10 numbers, and the number was divided into four parts via hyphens. The first section of an ISBN published prior to 2007 is the geographic location of its publisher. The next section, separated by a hyphen from the first section, is an identifier for the publisher's name, and then the following section is an identifier for the title and edition of the book. The last section of a pre-2007 ISBN is one digit which is used to verify its validity. After 2007, the codes were expanded to 13 digits, and all of the post-2007 ISBN's begin with the numbers "978" or "979." The hyphenated sections of the current ISBN codes have identical functions to the pre-2007 code divisions: geographic locator, publisher identification, title and edition identification and a single digit validation code.
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WorldCat lets you find the nearest library with the book you want via the ISBN. WorldCat is "the world's largest library catalog." On WorldCat's home page, you will find a search box. Click on the "Advanced Search" link just under the empty box to enter search terms. Now scroll with the small arrow to the right of the word "keyword," and highlight the term ISBN instead of "keyword." Enter the ISBN into the line across from "ISBN." Hit the search button on top right hand side of page. This will display links to the book via the ISBN. Click on the book's title, and WorldCat will provide you with a list of the libraries nearest you where this book is available, as well as retailers of the book, reviews and other information about its publishing and content.
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Amazon.com allows you to enter an ISBN to retrieve book titles. Although Amazon.com is a bookseller, it is also one of the best book finding aides available. To find a book on Amazon using only the ISBN code, requires nothing more than inputting the ISBN number in the search engine box on the home page of Amazon. You can also scroll down to the "books" section instead of "all departments" if you prefer, but then just enter the ISBN, and Amazon's search engines know to interpret it as an ISBN. They will provide you with information such as publisher, date of publication, edition and author from the ISBN.
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Search engines make finding books via ISBN easy and fun. You can also find a book through its ISBN number by using the Google search engine. On Google's home page, enter the term "ISBN:" followed by a space and the ISBN code and then hit enter. The book will appear once the search has been completed.
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