QUESTIONS relating about ISBN numbers, Publishing, & other Bar Codes
Lately I have had a large number of questions concerning the U.P.C. Symbol and ISBN numbers.
The following excepts from About.com do an excellent job of explaining the Bookland EAN Barcode.
For more information go to About.com.
The Bookland EAN is an international barcode used to identify books, video cassettes, audio cassettes and software. The Bookland EAN number is created using the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) as well as the currency and and price of the book. Since each title and edition of a book has a unique ISBN, the corresponding Bookland EAN symbol is also unique.
In other industries the first two or three digits of an EAN-13 barcode identify the country of origin. Since the book industry produces so many products, it has been given its own country codes (978 and 979) for 'Bookland'. To print an ISBN as a Bookland EAN barcode, add the 978 prefix at the front of the ISBN and remove the ISBN check digit from the end; an EAN check digit should be added in its place.
The main part of the EAN is usually followed by a 5-number code which contains the suggested retail price of the book. The first digit of the five indicates the currency: 0 for the British Pound, 5 for the U.S. Dollar, 4 for the Canadian Dollar. The rest of the code indicates the price. The code 51095, for example, would signify a price of US $10.95. A supplemental code of 90000 indicates that the book has no suggested retail price. Scanners in bookstores in the U.S. cannot read the Bookland EAN code without its 5-digit add-on.
Quite often the next question is "Do I need a U.P.C. Symbol too?".
There is no legal (law) requirement for a U.P.C. Symbol or an ISBN for that matter. It is a requirement of economics. If your outlet, retail or otherwise, demands one, then one needs to have one. At the moment, many retail outlets in the US have scanners that cannot read EAN symbols, although that should change soon.
With respect to this question, Morris Publishing says "If you plan to distribute your book through smaller bookstore and local retail shops, you're usually safe with only an ISBN. In most cases a bar code is not necessary. Check with the merchants you plan to call on to sell your book."
About.com. answer the question this way:
While a Bookland EAN will suffice when selling your titles through bookstores, non-traditional markets like supermarkets, drugstores and department stores are often not equipped to handle Bookland EAN codes. If you want to sell to these markets, you should also mark your books with the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.). The Book Industry Study Group has created some guidelines for publishers using both codes. On rack-sized mass market books, the U.P.C. code should appear on the back cover of the book, while the Bookland EAN should be printed on the inside of the front cover. On all other books, books should have only one bar code - either an EAN or U.P.C. If you've got money to burn, you can do this with two print runs of the same book. Otherwise, using U.P.C. labels to cover the EAN barcode will do fine. If you've got a non-book product that you want to sell in bookstores, a U.P.C. symbol will suffice. EAN readers can read U.P.C. symbols, but U.P.C. scanners generally cannot read EAN barcodes.
Next question is "Where can one obtain a U.P.C. number and/or an ISBN? Also how much does it cost?"
My original answer was in March 2003 -- Updated May 2004
U.P.C. manufacturer prefix numbers are obtained from the UC Council The cost is dependant upon the volume of business the company does. The minimum today (3/2002) is $750 registeration with an ongoing annual fee . These fees should come down when the System Number 8 changes go into affect.
The UCC has been dragging their feet and it appears it will be a long time before the new fee schedule is published. Until a reasonable fee schedule is published, please see where to obtain just a few numbers. (May 2004)
ISBN numbers are available from Bowker ISBN Agency or at ISBN.org. The "processing" charge depends on the quantity of numbers requested. The range is from $225 for 10 numbers to $3,000 for 10,000 ISBN's. There is also a $75 fee for "Priority Processing" if desired.
One more question that may or may not belong in this section is "What other barcodes are in general use today?"
Data Index, Inc. Describes the Barcode world of today as follows:
A bar code symbol is a parallel pattern of variable width bars and spaces; symbologies is the industry term describing the inviolable rules that specify the way that data is encoded into that pattern of bars and spaces.
U.P.C. - Universal Product Code The Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) has been employed in the supermarket industry since about 1973. U.P.C. is a coding system, as well as a symbology, that uniquely identifies both the manufacturer and its products.
There are 12 digits in the U.P.C. Version A (UPC-A) symbology, the first six are assigned by the Uniform Code Council. They include the NSC (Number System Character) and the Manufacturer's Number.
The next five digits make up a code identifying the product, and are called the Product Code. The final digit is known as the Modulo Checksum Character or Mod Check. The value of the Mod Check is mathematically derived from a formula which used the other numbers encoded in the symbol.
When a manufacturer wants to have a U.P.C. assigned to his products, they must first register with the Uniform Code Council. The UCC is located in Dayton, Ohio and they may be reached by phone at the following number: 937/435-3870.The UCC charges a one-time fee for registration [an annual fee was instituted in 2003 ]. This fee is set upon a sliding scale based upon the financial size of your company. These folks are helpful and they will expedite processing your application for additional revenue.
EAN - European Article Number system The European Article Numbering system (EAN) is a superset of U.P.C.; and while an EAN scanner will decode a U.P.C. symbol, the U.P.C. scanner may not necessarily decode an EAN. EAN is available in two versions, EAN-13 and EAN-8. An EAN-13 symbol contains the same number of bars as UPC-A, but additionally encodes a thirteenth digit. That digit, combined with the twelfth digit defines the two flag characters representing the country code.
The participating countries in EAN are identified by the country code prefix:
00-02-03-04-05-06-07-09 U.P.C., USA & Canada
30 -37 GENCOD
France 40 - 43 CEG Germany
50 Distribution Code Center, Japan 54 ICODIF (Belgium, GD of Luxemburg, etc) .....etc., other countries
97.7 Periodicals, ISSN World Wide
97.8 - 97.9 Bookland: ISBN World Wide
ISBN - ISBN-Bookland/EAN Symbology All EAN symbologies start with a national identifier except those on books. In the US, if you require an ISBN Bookland EAN-13 code for a book, you must register with the ISBN Agency, represented by R.R. Bowker in New York, phone number 908/464-6800. For a fee, they will process your registration and see that you are assigned ISBN numbers. Once that is done you may contact Data Index, Inc. and we will construct a Bookland EAN-13 barcode from your ISBN numbers.
Both the ISBN number you are assigned and the Bookland EAN-13 barcode have check digits. In each case, the check digit is derived by formula from the digits of that specific number sequence, so it is likely that the check digit for the ISBN will be different from the check digit of your Bookland EAN-13 bar code.
Code 39 - Code 3 of 9 The most widely used non-retail symbology is Code 39. This was the first alphanumeric symbology. Each Code 39 character has nine elements, four spaces and five bars. Of the nine, three elements are wide and six are narrow Code 39 symbols begin and end with and asterisk (*), the start/stop code of the symbol.
It is possible to encode a full 128 ASCII character set using Code 39. The code is self-checking and is normally not used with a check character. An optional modulo 43 check character can be used in applications that require data security. HIBCC (Health Industry Bar Code Council) has adopted the use of this check character in health care applications. If print quality is marginal, the use of Code 39' s check character is encouraged.
I 2 of 5 - Interleaved 2 of 5 I 2 of 5 is a high-density, continuous numeric symbology, that is self-checking; commonly used in the distribution industry. Each I 2 of 5 character encodes two digits, one in the bars and one in the spaces. There are five bars, two which are wide and three that are narrow; and each digit has ist own unique 2 out of 5 arrangement. The complete symbol consists of a start code, the data characters and a stop code.
This code is often used with a modulo 10 check digit in the final position for improved data security. However, the check digit alone will not prevent partial scan problems. In order to minimize accidental partial scans on longer symbols, bearer bars should be used. The bearer bars must touch the top and bottom of all data bars.
Codabar Commonly used in libraries, blood banks and air parcel express applications, Codabar is a self-checking, discrete symbology with a sixteen character set: numbers 0 through 9, $, :, /, ., +, and -. There are four diffenent start/stop codes. Originally developed in 1972, traditional Codabar is most commonly used in its variant format known as Rationalized Codabar. Rationalized Codabar is totally compatible with Traditional Codabar and just as secure, but with a slightly higer density.
Code 128 This a a very high density alphanumeric code; variable length, continuous code using multiple element widths. Each character has 11 modules, either black or white; three spaces and three bars. Code 128 employs three different character sets (A, B, or C) each of which contains 106 different printed characters. Three different start characters identify which character set is being used, and three shift codes permit changing character sets inside a symbol.
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If anyone sends me a question pertaining to the U.P.C. symbol, history, or the like, which can be answered concisely via e-mail, I will send the answer to their mail box and post both question and answer of some of them here.
I truly enjoy helping people, however, it would be nice if you send a "thank you"
e-mail if I am of help!
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George J. Laurer
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Revised: May 2004