On Thu, Aug 29, 2002 at 05:09:42AM +0200, Axel Boldt wrote:
I would like to go on record saying that ISBN numbers
are utterly
useless. Consider this:
* older books don't have ISBN numbers,
* the hardcover and softcover version of the same book have
completely unrelated ISBN numbers,
* different editions of a book have completely unrelated
ISBN numbers,
* even different printings of one and the same edition get
different ISBN numbers.
This last one isn't true. 'completely' unrelated is too strong in the
other cases, too, as they will typically have the same publisher code.
A much more rational way to code book references would
be with the
Library of Congress classification codes (which can be found inside
the front cover of every book, right above the ISBN).
Only a tiny minority of the books I own have this data. The great
majority have ISBNs.
-M-