Whether you are a book reader or author, understanding the ISBN (International Standard Book Numbers) database will help you find information about a particular book. This blog post will cover what is an ISBN database, how the ISBN database works, and how to find information about a book using its ISBN. I will also discuss how to get your book into the ISBN database as an author or publisher.
What is the ISBN database?
The ISBN database is a collection of information regarding books, their publishers, and a unique ISBN code. The ISBN database allows anyone to find information about a book using their ISBN.
ISBN database insists of below information:
- Book cover
- Book Title and Subtitle (Along with series name & Edition)
- Author name
- Book description
- Book format
- Book pricing
- Book publisher name
- Book size (In case of print book)
- Author bio and photo (Limited database)
- Sample book (First few pages of a book)
- Book Categories
- Book Audiences
The metadata of a book consists of all the information about a particular book and its formats. It’s dependent on the ISBN database and its creators to include all the metadata information of a book. There is no universal ISBN database that has information about all the books in the world. Each ISBN agency has their own country specific ISBN database. Most of the ISBN agency databases are publicly available. And, only a few ISBN agencies keep complete metadata information of a book added to their ISBN database. ISBN agency such as Bowker keep complete book metadata.
What is ISBNdb?
ISBNdb (ISBNdb.com) is the largest ISBN database website on the internet. It is a for-profit organization. ISBNdb captures information about books from multiple sources, like Amazon.com and various other book retail sites. The book information is only added to ISBNdb when a book is published and publicly available for sales.
You can search for a book information using ISBN on ISBNdb. ISBNdb is a tool for web developers who want to access ISBN databases for their projects. It provides convenient API access to facilitate integration.
There is no official ISBN database developed by the ISBN International organization. ISBN agency are responsible for maintaining a database of ISBNs issued by them with the book information. All countries have one official ISBN agency.
How to Find Info About A Book Using ISBN
The ISBN database like ISBNdb won’t help you if you want to know more about an ISBN that hasn’t yet been used for publishing a book. You need to look into the database of the ISBN agency that issued the ISBNs. The majority of ISBN agencies make the ISBN and its book information available to the public once the ISBN has been successfully assigned to a book.
First, find out which ISBN agency was used to obtain the ISBNs. You can look into the ISBN grouping to find the country code. Once you know the country ISBN agency that issued the ISBN, then look into their ISBN database to find info about the book. An ISBN is included into the agency database once it is assigned to a book. Book publisher or authors have to provide book information to ISBN agency to assign ISBN to a book and its format.
For example, ISBN issued in the US get listed into Bowker ISBN database after it is assigned to a book. Bowker ISBN database is known as Bookwire.
How to Find Info About the Book Publisher Using Their ISBN
There is one official database of book publishers around the work called Global Register of Publishers. The book publisher’s database is maintained by the ISBN International organization. It is available freely. You have to sign up for an account to access the database.
You can search the database using book publisher name, their ISBN, or ISBN publisher code. For example, in ISBN 978-1-56619-909-4.
- 978 is ISBN Prefix
- 1 is ISBN country code
- 56619 is publisher code
- 909 is the book title code
- 4 is check digit
You can search 56619 (publisher code) in the Global Register of Publishers to find its publisher information. Book publisher info includes name, full address, email address, phone number and other ISBN group publisher own. Information included in the Global Register of Publishers database depends on the ISBN agency.
