Colleagues: I was asked to summarize for the list. Responses are
sanitized. Thanks to everyone who replied and offered suggestions. We did
check OCLC and WorldCat. It was an interesting question and a few
librarians asked me about it at a LLAGNY function last night! If I find out
what the attorney finally did, I'll share that as well. Regards, Martha
Martha Goldman
Library Services Manager
Jones Day
222 East 41st Street - 4th floor
New York, NY 10017
phone: 212-901-7063
fax: 212-755-7306
e-mail: mgoldman@rcn.com
____________________________________________________________________________
_______
Greetings from a former vendor rep :) I thought it might be helpful for me
to share my limited experience at vendor x. vendor x would request a block
of ISBNs from the ISBN agency. The editors would then assign an open ISBN
to each book at some point in the editorial process. The whole list was
just kept in an Excel file, and covered both books already published, as
well as those still in the pipeline. I don't believe they had to register
the actual ISBN assignment until the book was on the verge of coming out.
There were a few occasions when books were seriously delayed, and their
(proposed) ISBNs were simply reassigned to another title. So, it's not like
publishers order ISBNs specifically for each individual book - they receive
blocks of ISBNs that they are free to assign to any of their titles (with
some limitations). The first few digits of an ISBN are tied to a specific
publisher, but the rest of it is just part of an alpha-numeric progression.
Now, other publishers may choose to be more rigid in their assignment of
ISBNs, and may wait to do so until they know the book's on its way out the
door. But just having an ISBN isn't evidence of some kind of verification
by the issuing agency that this is a book that will definitely be published.
A long-winded answer to your question :)
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My only experience with this issue is as an author. From that perspective,
I can say that my publishers regularly "reserve" ISBNs; however, there are
any number of complications that might delay (or - heaven forfend -
terminate) a book's release.
The creation of the hardcover ISBN is by no means a guarantee that the book
saw the light of day in that format.
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We always assign an ISBN number when we received the signed contract for a
new manuscript - long before the book is ever in print or even in
production. Other publishers may not assign ISBNs as soon as we do, but it
is standard industry practice to assign ISBNs well in advance of
publication.
The majority of the time, the manuscript comes in and the ISBN ends up as a
printed book, but occasionally we do cancel a publication. When we cancel a
publication, we notify Bowker (they administer the ISBN program). You should
be able to check with Bowker to see what happened to the ISBN in question,
though if the publisher of the ISBN did not inform Bowker that the hardcover
publication was cancelled, they may not be able to help. Here is the Bowker
link:
http://www.bowker.com/index.php/identifier-services/book-title-identifiers-i
sbn
If the book was copyrighted in the US, you could also check with the Library
of Congress Copyright Office since publishers are required to send copies of
each book to the copyright office upon publication. Here is the rule;
The copyright law in section 407 requires the "owner of copyright or of the
exclusive right of publication" in a work published in the United States to
deposit the required number of copies in the Copyright Office within 3
months of the date of such publication.
____________________________________________________________________________
_____
I had a related situation come up a couple of years ago and followed these
guidelines:
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnqa.asp#Q15
When purchasing ISBNs, we recommend that you estimate the amount of
publications you will be publishing within the next five years, and select
the block that best suits your needs.
_______________________________________________________________________
I'm not an expert by any means, and I don't really have an answer to your
question, but I do know that ISBNs are sometimes reassigned. So, even if
SOMETHING has been published with the hardcover ISBN, you'll need to check
to make sure it's the book you're looking for._
_____
From: owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-law-lib@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf
Of Martha Goldman
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 10:29 AM
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: [LAW-LIB:55791] Attn: Catalogers/ISBN question
Colleagues: This question is well beyond my scope but interesting...The
client, an author, wrote a book initially published in 1996. At the time,
separate ISBN numbers for the softcover and hardcover editions were
assigned. Although the book was only released at that time in softcover,
client believes that the book may have also been released in hardcover at
some point (although the client has never seen it). If so, royalties may be
due. However, the publisher is defunct so it can't be contacted. Although
we are going to contact the distributor of the publication and may be able
to check sales figures in a variety of ways, the issue is: when an ISBN
number is assigned, does it mean that the item MUST be printed (and
hopefully sold) or can an ISBN be assigned in anticipation of printing and
sales? We have also found a few web sites that provide background
information about the creation and meaning of the ISBN. Thanks in advance
for your advice and expertise. Regards, Martha
Martha Goldman
Library Services Manager
Jones Day
222 East 41st Street - 4th floor
New York, NY 10017
phone: 212-901-7063
fax: 212-755-7306
e-mail: mgoldman@rcn.com
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