[Wikipedia-l] Central bibliography

[Andrew Gray]

On 03/09/06, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 03/09/06, Ray Saintonge <saintonge at 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 at dunelm.org.uk