The global book industry has been slowly moving toward full ISBN-13 compliance.
According to the Book Industry Study Group, the International ISBN Agency will issue its first 979-prefix ISBNs in early 2008.
All traditional 10-digit ISBNs can be represented in a 13-digit form, by prepending 978 and recalculating the last digit:
0007149824 -> 9780007149827
Conversely, You can work back from any 978-prefixed 13-digit ISBN back the the 10-digit ISBN, by removing the 978 and recalculating the last digit:
9780007149827 -> 0007149824
But 13-digit ISBNs that start with other numbers, like 979, can’t be converted back down to 10 digits:
9790007149827 -> ?
The first 13-digit ISBNs on the market have been 978s, easily convertible back to 10 digits. This made it easy for many businesses to get started dealing with 13-digit ISBNs; they could just rewrite them as 10-digit ISBNs and keep going.
But with the introduction of 979s, there are no shortcuts anymore. Publishers, booksellers, distributors, libraries, collectors — anyone at all who uses ISBN codes — will need to be able to accommodate the new 13-digit ISBN. The transition’s taken much longer than initially planned; it’ll be interesting to see if it’ll be pushed back even further as 2008 approaches, as it’s been before.
