Book Industry Approves 13-Digit ISBN

On September 18, members of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) unanimously approved the Product Identification Policy Statement that endorses a 13-digit ISBN as proposed by the International Organization for Standardization, with an implementation date of January 2007. The statement also called for the Bookland EAN barcode to replace the price-point UPC where it is currently used on books and book-related products, effective January 1, 2005. Also, the Policy recommends that companies in the publishing industry become compliant with the Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN), which would allow trading partners to specify packaging information when placing electronic orders.

Several months of review and debate preceded the approval of BISG's Product Identification Policy Statement. The statement was approved by the BISG Board of Directors and ratified by BISG Membership. Jeff Abraham, executive director of BISG, said, "BISG is excited to fulfill its mandate of providing a forum and process for the creation of industry consensus on key issues. We will continue to work with all industry sectors to educate the various parties and assist with the implementation phase of the policy."

As with other voluntary standards, the timing and specific details of implementing the new policy will be determined between and among trading partners. The complete policy statement is available online at http://www.bisg.org/docs/BISG_policy_001.pdf. Moving forward, BISG plans additional research related to mass merchandisers and other parties affected by the policy statement and will develop a road map for the purpose of educating the parties affected and implementing the policy.

Watch for more on this subject, and what it means for booksellers, in upcoming issues of BTW.