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'ISO2' ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 2141 (Obsoleted by RFC 8141) ** Obsolete normative reference: RFC 3406 (Obsoleted by RFC 8141) -- Obsolete informational reference (is this intentional?): RFC 2611 (Obsoleted by RFC 3406) -- Obsolete informational reference (is this intentional?): RFC 3044 (Obsoleted by RFC 8254) -- Obsolete informational reference (is this intentional?): RFC 3187 (Obsoleted by RFC 8254) Summary: 2 errors (**), 0 flaws (~~), 2 warnings (==), 8 comments (--). Run idnits with the --verbose option for more detailed information about the items above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 IETF M. Huttunen 3 Internet-Draft J. Hakala 4 Obsoletes: 3187 (if approved) The National Library of Finland 5 Updates: 2288 (if approved) A. Hoenes, Ed. 6 Intended status: Standards Track TR-Sys 7 Expires: September 23, 2010 March 22, 2010 9 Using International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names 10 draft-hakala-rfc3187bis-isbn-urn-00 12 Abstract 14 The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a widely used 15 identifier for monographic publications. Since 2001, there has been 16 a URN (Uniform Resource Names) namespace for ISBNs. The namespace 17 registration was performed in RFC 3187 and applies to the ISBN as 18 specified in the original ISO Standard 2108-1992. To allow for 19 further growth in use, the successor ISO Standard, ISO 2108-2005, has 20 defined an expanded format for the ISBN, known as "ISBN-13". This 21 document replaces RFC 3187 and defines how both the old and new ISBN 22 standard can be supported within the URN framework and the syntax for 23 URNs defined in RFC 2141. An updated namespace registration is 24 included, which describes how both the old and the new ISBN format 25 can share the same namespace. 27 Discussion 29 This draft version is the outcome of work started in 2008 and brought 30 to the IETF as a contribution to a much larger effort to revise the 31 basic URN RFCs, in order to bring them in alignment with the current 32 URI Standard (STD 63, RFC 3986), ABNF, and IANA guidelines, and to 33 establish a modern URN resolution system for bibliographic 34 identifiers. 36 Until a more specific mailing list is established, comments are 37 welcome on the urn-nid@ietf.org mailing list (or sent to the 38 authors). 40 Status of This Memo 42 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 43 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 45 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 46 Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that 47 other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet- 48 Drafts. 50 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 51 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 52 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 53 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 55 The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at 56 http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. 58 The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at 59 http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. 61 This Internet-Draft will expire on September 23, 2010. 63 Copyright Notice 65 Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 66 document authors. All rights reserved. 68 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 69 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 70 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 71 publication of this document. Please review these documents 72 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 73 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 74 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 75 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 76 described in the Simplified BSD License. 78 This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF 79 Contributions published or made publicly available before November 80 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this 81 material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow 82 modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process. 83 Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling 84 the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified 85 outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may 86 not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format 87 it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other 88 than English. 90 Table of Contents 92 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 93 2. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 94 3. Identification and Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 95 4. International Standard Book Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 96 4.1. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 97 4.1.1. ISBN-10 Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 98 4.1.2. ISBN-13 Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 99 4.1.3. Relation between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 . . . . . . . . . 6 100 4.2. Encoding Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 101 4.3. Resolution of ISBN-based URNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 102 4.3.1. General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 103 4.3.2. Practical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 104 4.4. Additional Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 105 5. URN Namespace Registration and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 106 5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International 107 Standard Book Number (ISBN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 108 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 109 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 110 8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 111 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 112 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 113 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 115 1. Introduction 117 One of the basic permanent URI schemes (cf. RFC 3986 [RFC3986], 118 [IANA-URI]) is 'URN' (Uniform Resource Name) as defined in RFC 2141 119 [RFC2141]. Any identifier, when used within the URN system, needs 120 its own namespace. As of this writing, there are 40 registered URN 121 namespaces (see [IANA-URN]), one of which belongs to ISBN, 122 International Standard Book Number, as specified 2001 in RFC 3187 123 [RFC3187]. 125 Since 2007, there have been two variants of ISBN in use; an outdated 126 one based on ISO 2108-1992 [ISO1] and a new one defined in ISO 2108- 127 2005 [ISO2]. These versions shall subsequently be called "ISBN-10" 128 and "ISBN-13", respectively, in this document. For the time being, 129 both ISBNs may still be printed on a book, but the ISBN-13 is the 130 actual identifier. If what is said in this document applies to both 131 ISBN versions, the term "ISBN" is used. 133 As part of the validation process for the development of URNs, the 134 IETF URN working group agreed that it is important to demonstrate 135 that a URN syntax proposal can accommodate existing identifiers from 136 well established namespaces. One such infrastructure for assigning 137 and managing names comes from the bibliographic community. 138 Bibliographic identifiers function as names for objects that exist 139 both in print and, increasingly, in electronic formats. RFC 2288 140 [RFC2288] investigated the feasibility of using three identifiers 141 (ISBN, ISSN and SICI) as URNs, with positive results, however it did 142 not formally register corresponding URN namespaces. This was in part 143 due to the still evolving process to formalize criteria for namespace 144 definition documents and registration, consolidated later in the IETF 145 into RFC 3406 [RFC3406]. 147 URN Namespaces have subsequently been registered for both ISBN and 148 ISSN in RFCs 3187 [RFC3187] and 3044 [RFC3044], but not for SICI, due 149 to both the identifier's limited popularity and its complicated URN 150 resolution process. 152 Guidelines for using ISBN-10s (based on ISO 2108-1992) as URNs and 153 the original namespace registration have been published in RFC 3187 154 [RFC3187]. The RFC at hand replaces RFC 3187; sections related to 155 ISBN-13 have been added, all ISBN-10 information has been updated and 156 the namespace registration revised to make it compliant with both 157 ISBN versions and stipulations of RFC 3406 [RFC3406], which has 158 replaced RFC 2611 [RFC2611] applied in the initial registration. 160 2. Conventions used in this document 162 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", 163 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this 164 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119]. 166 "ISBN-10" refers to the original, 10-digit ISBN scheme specified in 167 ISO 2108-1992 [ISO1]. 169 "ISBN-13" refers to the current, 13-digit ISBN scheme specified in 170 ISO 2108-2005 [ISO2]. 172 3. Identification and Resolution 174 As a rule, ISBNs identify finite, manageably-sized objects, but these 175 objects may still be large enough that resolution into a hierarchical 176 system is appropriate. The materials identified by an ISBN may exist 177 only in printed or other physical form, not electronically. In such 178 a case, the URN:ISBN resolver should nevertheless be able to supply 179 bibliographic data, possibly including information about where the 180 physical resource is stored in the owning institution's holdings. 181 There may be other resolution services supplying a wide variety of 182 information resources or services related to the identified books. 184 National libraries shall be among the organizations providing 185 persistent URN resolution services for monographic publications, 186 independent of their form. 188 4. International Standard Book Numbers 190 4.1. Overview 192 An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) identifies a product 193 form or edition of a monographic publication. 195 4.1.1. ISBN-10 Structure 197 The ISBN-10 is defined by the ISO Standard 2108-1992 [ISO1]. It is a 198 ten-digit number (the last digit can be the letter "X" as well) which 199 is divided into four variable length parts usually separated by 200 hyphens when printed. The parts are as follows (in this order): 202 o a group identifier which specifies a group of publishers, based on 203 national, geographic, or some other criteria; 205 o the publisher identifier; 207 o the title identifier; and 208 o a modulo 11 check digit, using X instead of 10; the details of the 209 calculation are specified in [ISO1]. 211 ISBN-10 was in use from 1970s until ISBN-13 replaced it in January 212 2007. 214 4.1.2. ISBN-13 Structure 216 ISBN-13 is defined by the ISO Standard 2108-2005 [ISO2]. The ISBN-13 217 is a thirteen-digit number which is divided into five parts usually 218 separated by hyphens when printed. The first and the last part have 219 a fixed lenght, but the other parts have variable length. These 220 parts are as follows (in this order): 222 o a prefix element of ISBN-13 is a 3 digit prefix (at the time of 223 this writing, legal values were 978 and 979; future versions of 224 the standard may define additional values) specified by the 225 International ISBN Agency; 227 o a registration group element that specifies the registration 228 group; it identifies the national, geographic, language, or other 229 such grouping within which one or more ISBN Agencies operate; 231 o the registrant element; 233 o the publication element; and 235 o a modulo 10 check digit; the details of the calculation are 236 specified in [ISO2]. 238 4.1.3. Relation between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 240 The structural differences between the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 are the 241 prefix element (which did not exist in the old ISBN) and the check 242 digit calculation algorithm, which was modulo 11 in ISBN-10 and is 243 now modulo 10. 245 Terminology in ISBN-10 differs substantially from the terminology 246 applied in ISBN-13. In this document, ISBN-13 terminology shall be 247 used from now on; for a reader used to ISBN-10 terminology, the 248 following mapping may be useful: 250 o the group identifier = the registration group element; 252 o the publisher identifier = the registrant element; 254 o the title identifier = the publication element. 256 Any ISBN-10 can be converted to ISBN-13 form, and retrospective 257 conversion is indeed a recommended practice in ISO 2108-2005. Any 258 application processing ISBN-based URNs should however be prepared to 259 deal with both ISBNs, since ISBN-10 numbers may not be converted to 260 the new form. ISBN-13s using prefix element 979 can not be converted 261 back to ISBN-10, since in these ISBNs group identifiers will be re- 262 assigned. New books may still have ISBN-10 alongside ISBN-13 for 263 practical reasons, but only as long as the prefix element in ISBN-13 264 is 978. 266 4.2. Encoding Considerations 268 Embedding ISBNs within the URN framework does not present encoding 269 problems, since all of the characters that can appear in an ISBN are 270 valid in the namespace-specific string (NSS) part of the URN. 271 %-encoding, as described in RFC 2141 [RFC2141], is never needed. 273 Example 1: URN:ISBN:978-0-395-36341-6 275 Example 2: URN:ISBN:951-0-18435-7 277 Example 3: URN:ISBN:951-20-6541-X 279 4.3. Resolution of ISBN-based URNs 281 4.3.1. General 283 For URN resolution purposes, all elements except the check digit (now 284 0-9, previously 0-9 or X) must be taken into account. The 285 registration group and registrant element assignments are managed in 286 such a way that the hyphens are not needed to parse the ISBN 287 unambiguously into its constituent parts. However, the ISBN is 288 normally transmitted and displayed with hyphens to make it easy for 289 humans to recognize these elements without having to make reference 290 to or have knowledge of the number assignments for registration group 291 and registrant elements. In ISBN-10, registration group element 292 codes such as 91 for Sweden were unique. In ISBN-13 only the 293 combination of prefix and registration group elements is guaranteed 294 to be unique. 978-951 and 978-952 both mean Finland, but 979-951 and 295 979-952 almost certainly will not; registration group element(s) for 296 Finland are not yet known for ISBNs starting with 979. 298 The Finnish URN registry is maintained by the national library. The 299 service is capable of resolving ISBN-based URNs. URNs starting with 300 URN:ISBN:978-951 or URN:ISBN:978-952 are mapped into appropriate URL 301 addresses in a table maintained within the registry. Applications, 302 such as the national bibliography or the open archive of a 303 university, can use the URN as the address of the resource. There is 304 just one place (the registry) where the location information must be 305 kept up to date. 307 ISBN-13 prefix / registration group element combinations (and the 308 corresponding ISBN-10 registration group identifiers, if any) usually 309 designate a country, but occasionally a single combination / ISBN-10 310 group identifier is used to indicate a language area. For instance, 311 "978-3" (or "3" in ISBN-10) is utilised in Germany, Austria, and the 312 German speaking parts of Switzerland. As of this writing, there are 313 two regional registration groups: "978-976" is used in the Caribbean 314 community and "978-982" in the South Pacific (see [PREFIX]). 316 Note that the prefix and registration group element combination 317 "979-3" has not yet been assigned. There is no intention to allocate 318 the registration group elements in the same way as was done with 319 ISBN-10. 321 The registrant element may or may not be used for resolution 322 purposes, depending on whether individual publishers have set up 323 their resolution services. 325 The publication element shall enable targeting the individual 326 publication. 328 4.3.2. Practical Aspects 330 Due to the lack of URN support in, e.g., web browsers, the URNs are 331 usually expressed as URLs when embedded in documents. The Finnish 332 URN registry is located at http://urn.fi, and URNs are therefore 333 expressed in the form http://urn.fi/. For example, the URN 334 http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-10-3937-9 identifies Sami Nurmi's 335 doctoral dissertation "Aspects of Inflationary Models at Low Energy 336 Scales". 338 The Finnish URN registry can not resolve URN:ISBNs with non-Finnish 339 registration group element values until other countries establish 340 their registries, and all these services become aware of each other 341 and their respective registration group responsibility domains and 342 are able to communicate with each other. Thus the Finnish registry 343 can deal with URN:ISBN instances with registration group element 344 value 91 (indicating Sweden) if and only if the Swedish registry 345 exists, its address is known to the Finnish peer and the Swedish 346 service is capable of receiving and processing requests from other 347 registries. 349 If a registration group element does not identify a single country 350 but a language area, there are at least two means for locating the 351 correct national bibliography. First, it is possible to define a 352 cascade of URN registries - for instance, German, Austrian and Swiss 353 national registries, in this order - which should collectively be 354 aware of resolution services such as national bibliographies for 355 ISBN-13s starting with "978-3". If the German registry is not able 356 to find an authoritative resolution service, the request could be 357 passed to the Austrian one, and if there are still no hits, finally 358 to the Swiss service. 360 Second, the registrant element ranges assigned to the publishers in 361 Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the ISBN Agencies could be 362 defined directly into the national registries. This method would be 363 more efficient than cascading, since the correct resolution service 364 would be known immediately. The choice between these two and 365 possible other options should be made when the establishment of the 366 European network of URN registries reaches this level of maturity. 368 In some exceptional cases -- notably in the US and in the UK, where 369 international companies do a significant portion of publishing -- the 370 information provided by the group identifier may not always be fully 371 reliable. For instance, some monographs published in New York by 372 international publishing companies may get an ISBN with the 373 registration group element "3". This is technically appropriate when 374 the headquarters or one of the offices of the publisher is located in 375 Germany. 377 Information about such a book may not always be available in the 378 German national bibliography, but via the Library of Congress 379 systems. Unfortunately, the German/Austrian/Swiss URN registries 380 that should in this case be contacted may not be aware of the 381 appropriate resolution service. 383 However, the problem posed by the international publishers may well 384 be less severe than it looks. Some international publishers 385 (Springer, for example) give the whole production to the national 386 library of their home country as legal deposit, no matter which 387 country the book was published. Thus everything published by 388 Springer in New York with registration group element "3" should be 389 resolvable via the German national bibliography. On the other hand, 390 when these companies give their home base also as a place of 391 publication, the "home" national library requires the legal deposit. 393 A large union catalogue, such as WorldCat maintained by OCLC 394 [OCLC-WC] could be used to complement the resolution services 395 provided in the national level, or as the default service, if no 396 national services exist or are known to the registry from which the 397 query originates. 399 Due to the semantic structure of ISBN-13, even the registrant element 400 can be used as a "hint". Technically, it is possible to establish a 401 number of URN resolution services maintained by different kinds of 402 organizations. For instance, "978-951-0" is the unique ISBN 403 registrant element of the largest publisher in Finland, Sanoma-WSOY. 404 Resolution requests for ISBNs starting with "978-951-0" can be passed 405 to and dealt with the publisher's server, if and when it is made URN- 406 aware. In such a case, resolving the same URN in multiple locations 407 may provide different services; the national bibliography may be able 408 to provide bibliographic information only, while the publisher can 409 also provide the book itself, on its own terms. Different resolution 410 services may co-exist and complement one another. Same ISBN may be 411 resolved both as URN and as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 412 [DOIHOME]. URN-based services hosted by, e.g., a national library, 413 might provide only bibliographic data, whereas a service based on the 414 DOI system provided by the publisher might deliver the book, parts of 415 the book or various services related to the work. 417 Persistence of resolution services is largely dependent on 418 persistence of organizations providing them. Thus some services, 419 independent on base technology chosen, may disappear or their content 420 may change much sooner than some peer solutions. 422 4.4. Additional Considerations 424 The basic guidelines for assigning ISBNs to electronic resources are 425 the following: 427 o Format/means of delivery is irrelevant to the decision whether a 428 product needs an ISBN or not. If the content meets the 429 requirement, it gets an ISBN, no matter what the format of the 430 delivery system. 432 o Each format of a digital publication should have a separate ISBN. 433 The definition of a new edition is normally based on one of the 434 two criteria: 436 * A change in the kind of packaging involved: the hard cover 437 edition, the paperback edition and the library-binding edition 438 would each get a separate ISBN. The same applies to different 439 formats of digital files. 441 * A change in the text, excluding packaging or minor changes such 442 as correcting a spelling error. Again, this criterion applies 443 regardless of whether the publication is in printed or in 444 digital form. 446 Although these rules seem clear, their interpretation may vary. As 447 RFC 2288 [RFC2288] points out, 448 The choice of whether to assign a new ISBN or to reuse an existing 449 one when publishing a revised printing of an existing edition of a 450 work or even a revised edition of a work is somewhat subjective. 451 Practice varies from publisher to publisher (indeed, the 452 distinction between a revised printing and a new edition is itself 453 somewhat subjective). The use of ISBNs within the URN framework 454 simply reflects these existing practices. Note that it is likely 455 that an ISBN URN may resolve to many instances of the work (many 456 URLs). 458 These instances may be fully identical, or there may be some minor 459 differences between them. Publishers have also in some occasions re- 460 used the same ISBN for another book. This reasonably rare kind of 461 human error does not threaten or undermine the value of the ISBN 462 system as a whole. Neither do they pose a serious threat to the URN 463 resolution service based on ISBNs. An error should only lead into 464 the retrieval of two or more bibliographic records describing two 465 different monographic publications. Based on the information in the 466 records, a user can choose the correct record from the result set. 468 Most national bibliographies and especially the Books in Print 469 correct ISBN mistakes. The systems then provide cross references 470 "incorrect ISBN -> correct ISBN"). This should be taken into account 471 in the URN resolution process. Further details on the process of 472 assigning ISBNs can be found in section 5 (Namespace registration) 473 below. 475 5. URN Namespace Registration and Use 477 The formal URN Namespace Identifier Registration for the pre-2005 478 version of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was done in 479 RFC 3187 [RFC3187]. 481 The new ISBN standard does not require a new namespace, but the 482 registration is renewed here, as the registrant organization has 483 moved from Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz to 484 The International ISBN Agency, London, U.K, and the syntax and 485 resolution details are amended. 487 5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International Standard Book 488 Number (ISBN) 490 This registration describes how International Standard Book Numbers 491 (ISBN) can be supported within the URN framework. 493 [ RFC Editor: please replace "XXXX" in all instances of "RFC XXXX" 494 below by the RFC number assigned to this document. ] 495 Namespace ID: ISBN 497 This Namespace ID has already been assigned to the International 498 Standard Book Number in January 2001 when the namespace was 499 registered for the first time. 501 Registration Information: 503 Version: 2 504 Date: 2010-03-22 506 Declared registrant of the namespace: 508 Name: Mr. Brian Green 509 Affiliation: Director, The International ISBN Agency 510 Email: brian@isbn-international.org 511 Affiliation: EDItEUR, 39-41 North Road,London, N7 9DP, U.K. 512 Web URL: http://www.isbn-international.org/ 514 Declaration of syntactic structure: 516 The namspace-specific string of 'ISBN' URNs is either an ISBN-13 517 (see Section 4.1.2 of RFC XXXX) or an ISBN-10 (see Section 4.1.1 518 of RFC XXXX); the former is preferred. 520 Example 1: URN:ISBN:978-0-395-36341-6 521 Example 2: URN:ISBN:951-0-18435-7 522 Example 3: URN:ISBN:951-20-6541-X 524 Relevant ancillary documentation: 526 The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique machine- 527 readable identification number, which marks any edition of a book 528 unambiguously. This number is defined in ISO Standard 2108. The 529 number has been in use now for 30 years and has revolutionised the 530 international book-trade. 170 countries and territories are 531 officially ISBN members, and more of them are joining the system. 533 The administration of the ISBN system is carried out on three 534 levels: 535 International agency, 536 Group agencies, 537 Publisher levels. 539 The International ISBN agency is located in London. The main 540 functions of the Agency are: 542 * To promote, co-ordinate and supervise the world-wide use of the 543 ISBN system. 545 * To approve the definition and structure of group agencies. 547 * To allocate group identifiers to group agencies. 549 * To advise on the establishment and functioning of group 550 agencies. 552 * To advise group agencies on the allocation of international 553 publisher identifiers. 555 * To publish the assigned group numbers and publisher prefixes in 556 up-to-date form. 558 Information about ISBN usage in general can be found from the ISBN 559 FAQ, available at http://www.isbn-international.org/en/faqs . 561 Identifier uniqueness an persistence considerations: 563 ISBN is a unique and persistent identifier. An ISBN, once it has 564 been assigned, must never be re-used for another book. Moreover, 565 a single manifestation of a book must never get a new ISBN. 567 There may be multiple manifestations of a single literary work 568 such as a novel. In such case each manifestation shall receive a 569 different ISBN. ISO has developed a new standard, ISTC 570 (International Standard Text Code, ISO 21047-2009) which enables 571 identification of textual works. See 572 http://www.istc-international.org/ for more information. In the 573 standard itself, annex E describes the relations between ISBN and 574 other publication identifiers and ISTC. 576 Process of identifier assignment: 578 Assignment of ISBNs is controlled. There are three levels of 579 control: the international agency, group agencies which typically 580 operate in the national level and finally each publisher is 581 responsible of using the ISBN system correctly. Small publishers 582 may demand ISBN numbers one at a time by contacting the ISBN group 583 agency. Large publishers receive ISBN blocks from which they 584 allocate ISBNs to the books according to the ISBN assignment 585 rules. 587 Process for identifier resolution: 589 See Section 4.3 of RFC XXXX. 591 Rules for lexical equivalence: 593 ISBN numbers are usually printed with the letters 'ISBN' and a 594 single blank preceding them (for instance: ISBN 951-746-795-8). 595 The data preceding the actual number must be removed before the 596 ISBNs are analysed. The ISBN serves directly as the namespace- 597 specific string (NSS) of 'ISBN' URNs. 599 Prior to comparing the NSS of two ISBN-based URNs for equivalence, 600 all hyphens should be removed and letter 'X' capitalized. Prior 601 to comparing a URN based on ISBN-10 with a URN based on ISBN-13, 602 the ISBN-10 must be converted to the ISBN-13 form. This step is 603 necessary since the ISBN-10s may or may not be already converted 604 to the new form; as a rule, libraries shall keep the old ISBN 605 since it is the one printed in books published prior to 2007, 606 while publishers may convert the old identifiers originally 607 assigned in ISBN-10 form and use the equivalent ISBN-13s in 608 unchanged reprints of the books, which according to the ISBN 609 assignment rules should not receive a new ISBN. 611 The URNs are equivalent if the normalized forms obtained this way 612 compare equal. 614 Conformance with URN syntax: 616 Legal ISBN characters are 0-9 and hyphen for ISBN-13 and 0-9 and X 617 for ISBN-10. No hex encoding is needed. 619 Validation mechanism: 621 The check digit helps to assure the correctness of an ISBN number 622 assigned for a book when it has been entered or processed by a 623 human. Applications processing bibliographic data such as 624 integrated library systems typically can check the correctness of 625 both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 (and make conversions between the two). 626 If the number is wrong due to, e.g., a typing error made by a 627 publisher, a correct ISBN is usually assigned afterwards. 628 Although the book shall only contain the wrong number, national 629 bibliography and system used by the book trade often to contain 630 both the wrong and new, correct ISBN number. 632 Scope: 634 ISBN is a global identifier system used for identification of 635 monographic publications. It is very widely used and supported by 636 the publishing industry. 638 6. Security Considerations 640 This document proposes means of encoding ISBNs within the URN 641 framework. An ISBN-based URN resolution service is depicted here 642 both for ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, but only in a fairly generic level; 643 thus questions of secure or authenticated resolution mechanisms are 644 excluded. It does not deal with means of validating the integrity or 645 authenticating the source or provenance of URNs that contain ISBNs. 646 Issues regarding intellectual property rights associated with objects 647 identified by the ISBNs are also beyond the scope of this document, 648 as are questions about rights to the databases that might be used to 649 construct resolvers. 651 7. IANA Considerations 653 IANA is asked to update the existing registration of the Formal URN 654 Namespace 'ISBN' using the template given above in Section 5.1. 656 8. Acknowledgements 658 This draft version is the outcome of work started in 2008 and brought 659 to the IETF in 2010 to launch a much larger effort to revise the 660 basic URN RFCs as a part of project PersID (http://www.persid.org). 661 PersID is developing tools for establishing an European network of 662 URN resolvers concentrating on bibliographic identifiers. The aim in 663 the IETF is to bring these RFCs in alignment with the current URI 664 Standard (STD 63, RFC 3986), ABNF, and IANA guidelines. The 665 discussion in PersID has contributed significantly to this work. 667 Your name could go here ... 669 9. References 671 9.1. Normative References 673 [ISO1] ISO, "Information and documentation - The International 674 Standard Book Number (ISBN)", ISO 2108-1992, 1992. 676 [ISO2] ISO, "Information and documentation - The International 677 Standard Book Number (ISBN)", ISO 2108-2005, 2005. 679 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate 680 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997. 682 [RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997. 684 [RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. 685 Faltstrom, "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace 686 Definition Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002. 688 9.2. Informative References 690 [DOIHOME] International DOI Foundation, "The Digital Object 691 Identifier System", . 693 [IANA-URI] IANA, "URI Schemes Registry", 694 . 696 [IANA-URN] IANA, "URN Namespace Registry", 697 . 699 [OCLC-WC] OCLC WorldCat, "WorldCat.org: The World's Largest Library 700 Catalog", . 702 [PREFIX] International ISBN Agency, "ISBN Prefix Ranges", 703 . 705 [RFC2288] Lynch, C., Preston, C., and R. Jr, "Using Existing 706 Bibliographic Identifiers as Uniform Resource Names", 707 RFC 2288, February 1998. 709 [RFC2611] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. 710 Faltstrom, "URN Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 33, 711 RFC 2611, June 1999. 713 [RFC3044] Rozenfeld, S., "Using The ISSN (International Serial 714 Standard Number) as URN (Uniform Resource Names) within 715 an ISSN-URN Namespace", RFC 3044, January 2001. 717 [RFC3187] Hakala, J. and H. Walravens, "Using International 718 Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names", 719 RFC 3187, October 2001. 721 [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform 722 Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66, 723 RFC 3986, January 2005. 725 Authors' Addresses 727 Maarit Huttunen 728 The National Library of Finland 729 P.O. Box 26 730 Helsinki, Helsinki University FIN-00014 731 Finland 733 EMail: maarit.huttunen@helsinki.fi 735 Juha Hakala 736 The National Library of Finland 737 P.O. Box 15 738 Helsinki, Helsinki University FIN-00014 739 Finland 741 EMail: juha.hakala@helsinki.fi 743 Alfred Hoenes (editor) 744 TR-Sys 745 Gerlinger Str. 12 746 Ditzingen D-71254 747 Germany 749 EMail: ah@TR-Sys.de