On 03/09/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 03/09/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@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)