Library Terminology

In order to continue, I will first have to explain a bit of library terminology:

ISBN stands for an International Standard Book Number.

• An ISBN is a 10-digit number which is made up of 4 parts, a:

  • Group identifier (1 digit, typically 0 or 1 for English-speaking countries)

  • a Publisher identifier

  • a Title identifier

  • and a Check digit

    for example, the

• ISBN for the Perl Cookbook is : 1-56592-243-3

  the group identifier is 1, 56592 is one of O'Reilly's numbers (a publisher can have several, 243 is the number O'Reilly assigned to the Perl Cookbook, and 3 is the check digit.

EAN stands for European Article Number

ISBNs are printed on books using am EAN-13 barcode. In normal use, the first two or three digits of an EAN-13 barcode identify the country of origin. The country prefixes 978 and 979 were set aside for a virtual country called 'Bookland' (no, I'm not kidding), but only the 978 prefix is currently being used. To convert an ISBN to a EAN, you add the 978 prefix at the front of the ISBN, remove the ISBN check digit from the end; and calculate an EAN check digit in its place.

For example, the EAN for the Perl Cookbook is : 978-156592-243-3.

In this case, the check digits happen to be the same.

A EAN can be followed by a 5-digit code which contains the suggested list price.

MARC stands for MAchine Readable Cataloguing

A MARC record is the electronic equivalent of a card from a card catalog. MARC records are widely accepted as the standard format for the interchange of bibliographic data.

Z39.50 is the Information Retrieval Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification .

It specifies a protocol for searching a remote database. Z39.50 is the protocol libraries use to search each other's holding. When doing this, Z39.50 searches return MARC records.