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Nielsen backs e-book ISBN standard

11.08.08 Benedicte Page

Nielsen Book is to exclude e-books from its database that do not comply with the International ISBN Agency standard that each different format of an electronic publication has a separate ISBN.

In a statement issued today (11th August), the company, which operates the UK ISBN Agency, said e-books must be identified by an ISBN particular to each specified format in order to qualify for inclusion in the Nielsen Book database and appear in the BookScan charts.

Nielsen Book said the policy was in line with recommendations made by the International ISBN Agency and was intended to support supply chain best practice and communicate product identification accurately to retailers, libraries and consumers.

The company said: "In our discussions with publishers, we acknowledge that their e-book initiatives to date may not have required per-format identification. Equally we do not believe that many publishers see their current e-book arrangements remaining fixed as their only route to market for digital content for the long term. We believe that hardwiring bibliographic and identification practice to the limited requirements of current initiatives and experiments runs the risk of storing up inhibitors to future flexibility and adds potential costs of system re-engineering down the line. On these grounds, we recommend that publishers adopt the most flexible policy now on product identification."

The "most appropriate" organisation to assign ISBNs to individual products was the publisher, Nielsen Book said, although it added that it would be "fully supportive of third-party assignment where required".

Nielsen Book e-book policy document

Benedicte Page ebook Home digitisation Nielsen Book ISBN

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How will an e-bestseller list look? Will titles have all of their sales (regardless of format) combined or will a new e-book occupy the majority of places in a top ten e-book bestseller list if the book's .pdf, .lit, .pdb, .lbr, .prc, .pdg, .epub files all sell sufficiently enough?! Although this may give an accurate idea of the most popular reader, it may not be great at giving a reading of the most popular e-book.

11 Aug 08 14:59

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By Emma Barnes

In FMCG, product codes (SKUs) do not have to be single instances but can be defined as part of a family set. So you can have a SKU for, say, Pantene Pro V 200ml, but you can relate it to Pantene Pro V 200ml + 25ml free. Once that relationship is set up, you can apply rules: for instance, you might want to switch off the promotional product and switch on the normal product on an EPOS system, but not allow both to be live at one time. It would be great if the powers that be would make the ISBN structure a little more sophisticated and allow for families of ISBNs to be created, so that there was a clear family relationship between the paperback, hardback, proof, epub, mobi and illustrated slipcase edition of a book, for instance, rather than each being standalone, unrelated codes. This seems like an ideal time to consider that sort of change. Also, I should really get out more.

11 Aug 08 15:16

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By George Walkley

Your link to the Nielsen policy document is currently broken - there is an 'f' missing from the end of the URL. You might wish to correct this.

11 Aug 08 15:30

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By Julie Meynink - Nielsen BookScan

Emma, you're spot on. The ISTC (International Standard Text Code) standard being implemented now by Nielsen, Bowker and other partners will enable all products containing the same work to be grouped together. Once established this will allow the BookScan data to be run at ISBN or ISTC level to allow for additional analysis and bestseller charts based on related 'works' rather than just single ISBN.

11 Aug 08 15:36

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By GraemeNeill

Good spot George, I've just fixed it. Apologies for the problem but the document should be accessible now.

11 Aug 08 15:45

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By Emma Barnes

Thanks, Julie - sounds brill, but strange that I haven't heard about its implementation, especially as I tend to keep a watch out for all things bibliographic. What are the timescales? How can we learn more? Perhaps The Bookseller might be interested in getting those involved to give an update.

11 Aug 08 20:58

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By philip.jones@bookseller.co.uk

Hi Emma, yes we are working on a longer piece. Thanks for the comments.

12 Aug 08 08:18

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By Gersy

Can someone clarify what exactly "different format of an electronic publication means? I would consider PDF versus Microsoft reader two different formats of an e-book hence 2 different ISBN numbers. Whereas 24 hour online access versus 48 hours of the same PDF version is not a different format and therefore can have the same ISBN number. Yes, No?

12 Aug 08 14:27

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