appologies for cross posting A new International Standard Book Number (ISBN) has been approved and will come into effect as of 1 January 2007 requiring that all books published after this date will carry the new 13-digit ISBN. Plans have been prepared to facilitate the smooth transition on a global level and is necessitated by the dwindling of the numbers available to meet the growing demands of publishers and publications worldwide. The ISBN came into existence in 1970 as the internationally recognized identification system for the publishing and book sector. A unique identifier is attributed to each monographic publication from production and facilitates ordering and inventory by booksellers, libraries, publishers and the like as, in addition to enabling the collection of data it also contributes to the management of rights. The revised ISO standard, which is scheduled to published early in 2005, is the first time the structure has changed since its inception and revised implementation guidelines explaining in the process detail can be downloaded from http://www.isbn-international.org/en/download/implementation-guidelines-04.p... Satish S Munnolli Librarian Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research & Education in Cancer A Grant-in-aid Centre of the DAE, Govt. of India. Sector 22, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410208 Ph: 2740 5026; Fax: 2741 2894 Email: smunnolli@actrec.res.in appologies for cross posting   A new International Standard Book Number (ISBN) has been approved and will come into effect as of 1 January 2007 requiring that all books published after this date will carry the new 13-digit ISBN. Plans have been prepared to facilitate the smooth transition on a global level and is necessitated by the dwindling of the numbers available to meet the growing demands of publishers and publications worldwide. The ISBN came into existence in 1970 as the internationally recognized identification system for the publishing and book sector. A unique identifier is attributed to each monographic publication from production and facilitates ordering and inventory by booksellers, libraries, publishers and the like as, in addition to enabling the collection of data it also contributes to the management of rights. The revised ISO standard, which is scheduled to published early in 2005, is the first time the structure has changed since its inception and revised implementation guidelines explaining in the process detail can be downloaded from http://www.isbn-international.org/en/download/implementation-guidelines-04.p... http://www.isbn-international.org/en/download/implementation-guidelines-04.p...   Satish S Munnolli Librarian Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research & Education in Cancer A Grant-in-aid Centre of the DAE, Govt. of India. Sector 22, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai 410208 Ph: 2740 5026; Fax: 2741 2894 Email: mailto:smunnolli@actrec.res.in smunnolli@actrec.res.in