On 03/09/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 03/09/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
wrote:
I have never been keen on ISBNs either. In
addition to older works that
never had an ISBN in the first place, works with a long history of
different editions can have any number of ISBNs, and at some point it
would be helpful to be able to compare various editions.
Yes. ISBNs are useful indeed, but they were created for the use of the
publishing industry and are per *edition* rather than per *book*.
Strictly, it's not even "per edition" - it's a sort of odd fusion of
edition and production run. (Trade paperback and hardcover "editions"
will often be textually identical editions - printed from the same
plates, so the text and layout is identical - but just bound and
marketed differently)
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk