The simple answer is that they are incredibly useful, and that they are convenient. If there were some other number which uniquely identified books, rather than particular printings of books, I would support using those instead.
Delirium wrote:
To sidestep the issue of partnering with booksellers for a bit, I have a more fundamental question: why do we have ISBN links at all? ISBN numbers do not identify books; they identify particular printings of books by particular publishers. Our job, as an encyclopedia, is to discuss the books themselves; if the reader wishes to find which publishers have the book currently in print in his or her country, I don't see that as our role (there are plenty of places to look that up, or ask your local bookstore). Not to mention that with the vast majority of books we'd be interested in documenting in an encyclopedia, there are dozens (sometimes hundreds!) of ISBN numbers under which the book has been published. Are we going to end every article on books with a lengthy list of ISBN numbers? Or are we going to arbitrarily pick one from our favorite publisher? I'd propose we instead just leave them out entirely.
-Mark
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