Andrew Gray wrote:
If anyone feels really public-spirited (for the world in general, not just WP), consider writing a patch to Special:Booksources to somehow do on-the-fly integration with xISBN and similar other-editions tools; this would be *incredibly* useful, and would make that page a vital resource rather than a curiosity.
(ISBNs refer to a specific edition or, sometimes, a specific printing; a given work usually has two, often four or six, sometimes literally hundreds or thousands. You can see why the crossreferencing would make this oh so much better)
Typically, sellers of new books will only show the ISBNs of current editions. Books that have a new edition each year will have a long range of ISBNs and will distinguish hard and soft cover, or even whether there are thumb tabs in the fore edge. I very much agree with the usefulness of a reference work that would sort out the different editions.
Ec