How many of you know what this number is referring to? Deb's librarian friends have a real advantage on this one. It is an ISBN-- that is, International Standard Book Number. And not just any ISBN-- it is the number for Philip's textbook-- Advanced Genetic Analysis:Genes, Genomes, and Networks in Eukaryotes.
Yes, his book has been assigned an ISBN and is now available for pre-order. Click here to order your very own copy from Amazon or if you want to order it directly from OUP-- click here. Philip will get 10% of the cover price for each book sold and we plan to retire on this income, so order your copies for holiday giving now! With the book now being offered for sale on the web, it means the book really does need to be finished. (Technically, it is all finished but is still with the typesetter. Any day now, they will turn back the proofs for a final reading.)
For those who are curious, here's a little lesson in ISBN syntax: From 1970 until 2007, all ISBN numbers were 10 digits long. But then they ran out of numbers, so they added 3 digits to the front end. Currently, all ISBN-13 codes begin with "978". The next digit indicates the language in which the book is published, with "0" denoting English. The next two digits identify the publisher, in this case, Oxford University Press. The last group of digits uniquely identify the published item worldwide.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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1 comment:
You forgot about the check digit! That last digit is an error detection mechanism that is calculated from the rest of the digits. It's supposed to catch you when you type in the number wrong.
For ISBN-10, it was just x=1*first + 2*second + ... + 9*ninth, then you take the remainder of x / 11 and that's your check digit. Since 11 is prime, the digit X represents 11. With this digit, if you accidentally transpose two adjacent digits, the check digit will be different. Also, if you type in one wrong digit, the check digit will be different.
The ISBN-13 check digits are slightly different. Multiply alternately 3 and 1 with each digit, then mod by 10 (so no more X!). Since 10 is not prime, you don't always get the adjacent transposition detection, so the check digit for the new ISBN-13 is weaker.
Interestingly enough, I was studying ISBNs last night as a possible programming assignment for my students. So I wrote a little program that generates all of the single adjacent transpositions that result in the same check digit. Turns out that with your ISBN number, if you swap any two adjacent digits, the check digit changes - so that's good. However, if you change one particular digit to another, sometimes the check digit doesn't change. Here are all of the examples of ISBNs that are one digit away from yours with a check digit of 7.
9 2 8 0 1 9 9 7 1 9 8 2
9 7 1 0 1 9 9 2 8 9 8 2
9 7 2 8 1 9 9 2 1 9 8 2
9 7 8 1 4 9 9 2 1 9 8 2
9 7 8 9 1 9 6 2 1 9 8 2
9 7 8 3 0 9 9 2 1 9 8 2
9 7 8 0 9 5 9 2 1 9 8 2
0 7 8 0 1 9 9 9 1 9 8 2
9 7 8 0 1 9 9 1 8 9 8 2
9 7 8 3 1 9 9 2 0 9 8 2
9 7 8 0 1 5 9 2 9 9 8 2
9 7 8 0 1 9 9 2 8 9 1 2
0 7 8 0 1 9 9 2 1 9 8 9
9 7 8 0 1 9 9 2 8 9 8 1
So now you should just tell people to NOT write your ISBN this way.
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