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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) 266-2496, 266-2338
Fax: (+49 30) 266-2378
e-mail: isbn@sbb.spk-berlin.de
www: http://isbn.spk-berlin.de
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 Agency
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 international publisher identifiers.
- To publish the assigned
group numbers and publishers prefixes 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,
United Kingdom, the United States, etc.
The functions of a group/national agency are:
- To promote participation
of the ISBN 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
prefixes required.
- To allocate publisher prefixes
to eligible publishers and maintain a register of publishers and their
prefixes.
- 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 ISBN 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 prefixes 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 prefix from a group agency and
a printout of the ISBNs that are available to them in combination with the
allocated publisher prefix.
A publisher will be assigned a publisher prefix 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 advise on
all present and future publications in order that a suitable size publisher
prefix can be assigned.
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.
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