Overview

Introduction
Number Structure
Retrospective Conversion
Responsibility for Changes
FAQs
Glossary: Terminology & Acronyms
Key Dates

Glossary: Terminology & Acronyms

Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) This forum provides access for the entire publishing industry to come together to develop and maintain technology and electronic commerce standards, to stay on top of the latest industry trends, and to address business issues facing its members.

Book Industry Study Group (BISG) The trade association of the U.S. book industry. Its members include publishers, retailers, printers, binders, book manufacturers, and others interested in the welfare of the book industry.

Cataloging in Publication (CIP) A Cataloging in Publication record (a.k.a. CIP data) is a bibliographic record prepared by the Library of Congress for a book that has not yet been published. When the book is published, the publisher includes the CIP data on the copyright page, thereby facilitating book processing for libraries and book dealers.

Cover 4 The outside back cover of the book, or the part of the dust jacket covering the outside back cover.

European Article Number (EAN) The primary product identifier used throughout the world outside North America on commercially available products and services. It is encoded on products including books in the EAN bar code and is 13 digits long.

GS1 (formerly UCC) A leading global organization dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors.

GTIN An umbrella term used to describe the entire family of EAN/UCC data structures for trade item identification. In addition to the UPC and EAN, it also includes the EAN/UCC-14 code that is used to identify packaging levels.

Initial Bibliographic Control (IBC) Bibliographic control numbers are assigned by various agencies to uniquely identify bibliographic entities under the agency's care.

International ISBN Agency (IIA) Promotes, coordinates, and supervises the worldwide use of the ISBN system.

ISBN-10 (10-digit ISBN) The current ISO standard in effect since the early 1970’s indicates that the ISBN, which is the product identifier for books, should be 10 digits in length.

ISBN-13 (13-digit ISBN) The recently passed revision to the ISO standard governing ISBN has ruled that, effective January 1, 2007, the ISBN shall be a 13-digit number.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) A network of the national standards institutes of 146 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. It is a non-governmental organization, which operates under the belief that industry standards facilitate commerce and benefit suppliers and customers.

Pre-assigned Control Number (PCN) A number assigned to documents in advance of publication that may be added to the Library of Congress’ collections.

Sunrise 2005 A date—January 1, 2005—decreed by the Uniform Code Council by which North American retailers should have upgraded their systems in order to scan, read, and store 13-digit product identifiers.

Universal Product Code (UPC) The primary product identifier used in North America for 30 years on products other than books. It is usually 12 digits in length, although a variant used in periodicals is only eight digits. Some products carried by Ingram including music, video, and mass-market books sold in general retail establishments usually have UPCs.