RFC 3187 (rfc3187) - Page 2 of 11
Using International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 3187 Using ISBNs as URNs October 2001
The document at hand is part of a global joint venture of the
national libraries to foster identification of electronic documents
in general and utilisation of URNs in particular. The document was
written as a co-operative project between the Helsinki University
Library and The International ISBN Agency.
We have used the URN Namespace Identifier "ISBN" for ISBNs in
examples below.
2. Identification vs. Resolution
As a rule the ISBNs identify finite, manageably-sized objects, but
these objects may still be large enough that resolution into a
hierarchical system is appropriate.
The materials identified by an ISBN may exist only in printed or
other physical form, not electronically. The best that a resolver
will be able to offer in this case is bibliographic data from a
national bibliography database, including information about where the
physical resource is stored in the national library's holdings.
3. International Standard Book Numbers
3.1 Overview
RFC 2288 [Lynch] describes the ISBN system in the following way:
An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) identifies an edition
of a monographic work. The ISBN is defined by the standard
NISO/ANSI/ISO 2108:1992 [ISO1]
Basically, an ISBN is a ten-digit number (actually, the last digit
can be the letter "X" as well, as described below) which is
divided into four variable length parts usually separated by
hyphens when printed. The parts are as follows (in this order):
* a group identifier which specifies a group of publishers, based
on national, geographic or some other criteria,
* the publisher identifier,
* the title identifier,
* and a modulus 11 check digit, using X instead of 10.
Hakala & Walravens Informational