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2 IETF URNbis WG M. Huttunen
3 Internet-Draft J. Hakala
4 Obsoletes: 2288,3187 The National Library of Finland
5 (if approved) A. Hoenes, Ed.
6 Intended status: Standards Track TR-Sys
7 Expires: June 20, 2011 December 17, 2010
9 Using International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names
10 draft-ietf-urnbis-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 defines how both the old and new ISBN standard can be
22 supported within the URN framework and the syntax for URNs defined in
23 RFC 2141[bis]. An updated namespace registration is included, which
24 describes how both the old and the new ISBN format can share the same
25 namespace.
27 This document replaces RFC 3187; it also obsoletes and moves to
28 Historic status the predecessor thereof, RFC 2288.
30 Discussion
32 Comments are welcome and should be directed to the urn@ietf.org
33 mailing list or the authors.
35 Status of This Memo
37 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
38 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
40 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
41 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute
42 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-
43 Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.
45 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
46 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
47 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
48 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
49 This Internet-Draft will expire on June 20, 2011.
51 Copyright Notice
53 Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
54 document authors. All rights reserved.
56 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
57 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
58 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
59 publication of this document. Please review these documents
60 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
61 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
62 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
63 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
64 described in the Simplified BSD License.
66 This document may contain material from IETF Documents or IETF
67 Contributions published or made publicly available before November
68 10, 2008. The person(s) controlling the copyright in some of this
69 material may not have granted the IETF Trust the right to allow
70 modifications of such material outside the IETF Standards Process.
71 Without obtaining an adequate license from the person(s) controlling
72 the copyright in such materials, this document may not be modified
73 outside the IETF Standards Process, and derivative works of it may
74 not be created outside the IETF Standards Process, except to format
75 it for publication as an RFC or to translate it into languages other
76 than English.
78 Table of Contents
80 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
81 2. Conventions used in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
82 3. Fundamental Namespace and Community Considerations . . . . . . 5
83 3.1. The URN:ISBN Namespace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
84 3.2. Community Considerations for ISBNs . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
85 4. International Standard Book Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
86 4.1. Overview / Namespace Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . 6
87 4.1.1. ISBN-10 Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
88 4.1.2. ISBN-13 Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
89 4.1.3. Relation between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 . . . . . . . . . 7
90 4.2. Encoding Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
91 4.3. Resolution of ISBN-based URNs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
92 4.3.1. General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
93 4.3.2. Practical Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
94 4.4. Additional Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
95 5. URN Namespace Registration and Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
96 5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International
97 Standard Book Number (ISBN) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
98 6. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
99 7. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
100 8. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
101 9. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
102 9.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
103 9.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
104 Appendix A. Draft Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
105 A.1. draft-hakala-rfc3187bis-isbn-urn-00 to
106 draft-ietf-urnbis-*-00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
108 1. Introduction
110 One of the basic permanent URI schemes (cf. RFC 3986 [RFC3986],
111 [IANA-URI]) is 'URN' (Uniform Resource Name) as originally defined in
112 RFC 2141 [RFC2141] and now being formally specified in RFC 2141bis
113 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn]. Any identifier, when used within
114 the URN system, needs its own namespace. As of this writing, there
115 are roughly 40 registered URN namespaces (see [IANA-URN]), one of
116 which belongs to ISBN, International Standard Book Number, as
117 specified 2001 in RFC 3187 [RFC3187].
119 Since 2007, there have been two variants of ISBN in use; an outdated
120 one based on ISO 2108-1992 [ISO1] and a new one defined in ISO 2108-
121 2005 [ISO2]. These versions shall subsequently be called "ISBN-10"
122 and "ISBN-13", respectively, in this document. For the time being,
123 both ISBNs may still be printed on a book, but the ISBN-13 is the
124 actual identifier. If what is said in this document applies to both
125 ISBN versions, the generic term "ISBN" is used.
127 As part of the validation process for the development of URNs, the
128 IETF URN working group agreed that it is important to demonstrate
129 that a URN syntax proposal can accommodate existing identifiers from
130 well established namespaces. One such infrastructure for assigning
131 and managing names comes from the bibliographic community.
132 Bibliographic identifiers function as names for objects that exist
133 both in print and, increasingly, in electronic formats. RFC 2288
134 [RFC2288] investigated the feasibility of using three identifiers
135 (ISBN, ISSN and SICI, see below) as URNs, with positive results;
136 however, it did not formally register corresponding URN namespaces.
137 This was in part due to the still evolving process to formalize
138 criteria for namespace definition documents and registration,
139 consolidated later in the IETF into RFC 3406 [RFC3406]. That RFC, in
140 turn, is now being updated as well into RFC 3406bis
141 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg].
143 URN Namespaces have subsequently been registered for both ISBN
144 (International Standard Book Number) and ISSN (International Serial
145 Standard Number) in RFCs 3187 [RFC3187] and 3044 [RFC3044],
146 respectively, but not for SICI (Serial Item and Contribution
147 Identifier), due to both the identifier's limited popularity and its
148 complicated URN resolution process.
150 Guidelines for using ISBN-10s (based on ISO 2108-1992) as URNs and
151 the original namespace registration have been published in RFC 3187
152 [RFC3187]. The RFC at hand replaces RFC 3187; sections related to
153 ISBN-13 have been added, all ISBN-10 information has been updated and
154 the namespace registration revised to make it compliant with both
155 ISBN versions and stipulations of RFC 3406bis
157 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg], the work-in-progress
158 successor of RFC 3406 [RFC3406], which in turn had replaced the
159 legacy RFC 2611 [RFC2611] applied in the initial registration.
161 2. Conventions used in this document
163 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
164 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
165 document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
167 "ISBN-10" refers to the original, 10-digit ISBN scheme specified in
168 ISO 2108-1992 [ISO1].
170 "ISBN-13" refers to the current, 13-digit ISBN scheme specified in
171 ISO 2108-2005 [ISO2].
173 3. Fundamental Namespace and Community Considerations
175 3.1. The URN:ISBN Namespace
177 ISBN is a well established standard identifier system for monographic
178 publications. Therefore, any useful and deployable method to
179 identify these entities for network-wide reference and make their
180 metadata available on the Internet needs to be based on that system.
182 Section 4 below, and there in particular Section 4.1, presents a
183 detailed overview of the history and the structure of the ISBN
184 namespace, related institutions, and the identifier assignment
185 principles used, and Section 4.3 gives an overview of existing and
186 emerging resolution systems for the URN:ISBN namespace.
188 3.2. Community Considerations for ISBNs
190 ISBNs are assigned under the auspices of the International ISBN
191 Agency [ISBNORG].
193 ISBNs identify finite objects, but sometimes these objects might be
194 so large that resolution into a hierarchical system is appropriate.
195 The materials identified by an ISBN may exist only in printed or
196 other physical form, not electronically. In such a case, the URN:
197 ISBN resolver should nevertheless be able to supply bibliographic
198 data, possibly including information about where the physical
199 resource is stored in the owning institution's holdings. There may
200 be other resolution services supplying a wide variety of information
201 resources or services related to the identified books.
203 National libraries and large publishers are the key organizations
204 providing persistent URN resolution services for resources identified
205 with ISBNs, independent of their form.
207 For library users and Internet-based supply chain management for the
208 delivery of monographic work, URN-based identification and resolution
209 services offer more efficient, uniform, and reliable access to
210 resources in general. No special tools are needed for this; Web
211 browsers are sufficient.
213 Section 4 below, and in particular Section 4.3 therein, presents a
214 detailed overview of the application of the URN:ISBN namespace and
215 the principles, and systems used, for the resolution of ISBN-based
216 URNs.
218 4. International Standard Book Numbers
220 4.1. Overview / Namespace Considerations
222 An International Standard Book Number (ISBN) identifies a product
223 form or edition of a monographic publication.
225 4.1.1. ISBN-10 Structure
227 The ISBN-10 is defined by the ISO Standard 2108-1992 [ISO1]. It is a
228 ten-digit number (the last "digit"can be the letter "X" as well) that
229 is divided into four variable length parts usually separated by
230 hyphens when printed. The parts are as follows (in this order):
232 o a group identifier that specifies a group of publishers, based on
233 national, geographic, or some other criteria;
235 o the publisher identifier;
237 o the title identifier; and
239 o a modulo 11 check digit, using X instead of 10; the details of the
240 calculation are specified in [ISO1].
242 ISBN-10 was in use from 1970s until ISBN-13 replaced it in January
243 2007.
245 4.1.2. ISBN-13 Structure
247 ISBN-13 is defined by the ISO Standard 2108-2005 [ISO2]. The ISBN-13
248 is a thirteen-digit number that is divided into five parts usually
249 separated by hyphens when printed. The first and the last part have
250 a fixed lenght, but the other parts have variable length. These
251 parts are as follows (in this order):
253 o a prefix element of ISBN-13 is a 3 digit prefix specified by the
254 International ISBN Agency; at the time of this writing, legal
255 values were 978 and 979; future versions of the standard may
256 define additional values;
258 o a registration group element that specifies the registration
259 group; it identifies the national, geographic, language, or other
260 such grouping within which one or more ISBN Agencies operate;
262 o the registrant element;
264 o the publication element; and
266 o a modulo 10 check digit; the details of the calculation are
267 specified in [ISO2].
269 4.1.3. Relation between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13
271 The structural differences between the ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 are the
272 prefix element (which did not exist in the old ISBN) and the check
273 digit calculation algorithm, which was modulo 11 in ISBN-10 and is
274 now modulo 10.
276 Terminology in ISBN-10 differs substantially from the terminology
277 applied in ISBN-13. In this document, ISBN-13 terminology shall be
278 used from now on; for a reader used to ISBN-10 terminology, the
279 following mapping may be useful:
281 o ISBN-10 group identifier <-> ISBN-13 registration group element;
283 o ISBN-10 publisher identifier <-> ISBN-13 registrant element;
285 o ISBN-10 title identifier <-> ISBN-13 publication element.
287 Any ISBN-10 can be converted to ISBN-13 form, and retrospective
288 conversion is indeed a recommended practice in ISO 2108-2005. Any
289 application that processes ISBN-based URNs should however be prepared
290 to deal with both ISBNs, since ISBN-10 numbers may not be converted
291 to the new form. ISBN-13s using prefix element 979 can not be
292 converted back to ISBN-10, since in these ISBNs group identifiers
293 will be re-assigned. New books may still have ISBN-10 alongside
294 ISBN-13 for practical reasons, but only as long as the prefix element
295 in ISBN-13 is 978.
297 4.2. Encoding Considerations
299 Embedding ISBNs within the URN framework does not present encoding
300 problems, since all of the characters that can appear in an ISBN are
301 valid in the namespace-specific string (NSS) part of the URN.
302 %-encoding, as described in RFC 2141 [RFC2141] and RFC 2141bis
303 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn], is never needed.
305 Example 1: URN:ISBN:978-0-395-36341-6
307 Example 2: URN:ISBN:951-0-18435-7
309 Example 3: URN:ISBN:951-20-6541-X
311 4.3. Resolution of ISBN-based URNs
313 4.3.1. General
315 For URN resolution purposes, all elements except the check digit (now
316 0-9, previously 0-9 or X) must be taken into account. The
317 registration group and registrant element assignments are managed in
318 such a way that the hyphens are not needed to parse the ISBN
319 unambiguously into its constituent parts. However, the ISBN is
320 normally transmitted and displayed with hyphens to make it easy for
321 humans to recognize these elements without having to make reference
322 to or have knowledge of the number assignments for registration group
323 and registrant elements. In ISBN-10, registration group element
324 codes such as 91 for Sweden were unique. In ISBN-13, only the
325 combination of prefix and registration group elements is guaranteed
326 to be unique. 978-951 and 978-952 both mean Finland, but 979-951 and
327 979-952 almost certainly will not (once they will be assigned in the
328 future); at the time of this writing, registration group element(s)
329 for Finland are not yet known for ISBNs starting with 979.
331 The Finnish URN registry is maintained by the national library. The
332 service is capable of resolving ISBN-based URNs. URNs starting with
333 URN:ISBN:978-951 or URN:ISBN:978-952 are mapped into appropriate URL
334 addresses in a table maintained within the registry. Applications,
335 such as the national bibliography or the open archive of a
336 university, can use the URN as the address of the resource. There is
337 just one place (the registry) where the location information must be
338 kept up to date.
340 ISBN-13 prefix / registration group element combinations (and the
341 corresponding ISBN-10 registration group identifiers, if any) usually
342 designate a country, but occasionally a single combination / ISBN-10
343 group identifier is used to indicate a language area. For instance,
344 "978-3" (or "3" in ISBN-10) is utilised in Germany, Austria, and the
345 German speaking parts of Switzerland. As of this writing, there are
346 two regional registration groups: "978-976" is used in the Caribbean
347 community and "978-982" in the South Pacific (see [PREFIX]).
349 Note that the prefix and registration group element combination
350 "979-3" has not yet been assigned. There is no intention to allocate
351 the registration group elements in the same way as was done with
352 ISBN-10.
354 The registrant element may or may not be used for resolution
355 purposes, depending on whether individual publishers have set up
356 their resolution services.
358 The publication element shall enable targeting the individual
359 publication.
361 4.3.2. Practical Aspects
363 Due to the lack of URN support in, e.g., web browsers, the URNs are
364 usually expressed as URLs when embedded in documents. The Finnish
365 URN registry is located at , and URNs are therefore
366 expressed in the form http://urn.fi/. For example, the URI
367 identifies Sami Nurmi's
368 doctoral dissertation "Aspects of Inflationary Models at Low Energy
369 Scales".
371 The Finnish URN registry can not resolve URN:ISBNs with non-Finnish
372 registration group element values until other countries establish
373 their registries, and all these services become aware of each other
374 and their respective registration group responsibility domains and
375 are able to communicate with each other. Thus the Finnish registry
376 can deal with URN:ISBN instances with registration group element
377 value 91 (indicating Sweden) if and only if the Swedish registry
378 exists, its address is known to the Finnish peer and the Swedish
379 service is capable of receiving and processing requests from other
380 registries.
382 If a registration group element does not identify a single country
383 but a language area, there are at least two means for locating the
384 correct national bibliography. First, it is possible to define a
385 cascade of URN registries - for instance, German, Austrian and Swiss
386 national registries, in this order - which should collectively be
387 aware of resolution services such as national bibliographies for
388 ISBN-13s starting with "978-3". If the German registry is not able
389 to find an authoritative resolution service, the request could be
390 passed to the Austrian one, and if there are still no hits, finally
391 to the Swiss service.
393 Second, the registrant element ranges assigned to the publishers in
394 Germany, Austria and Switzerland by the ISBN Agencies could be
395 defined directly into the national registries. This method would be
396 more efficient than cascading, since the correct resolution service
397 would be known immediately. The choice between these two and
398 possible other options should be made when the establishment of the
399 European network of URN registries reaches this level of maturity.
401 In some exceptional cases -- notably in the US and in the UK, where
402 international companies do a significant portion of publishing -- the
403 information provided by the group identifier may not always be fully
404 reliable. For instance, some monographs published in New York by
405 international publishing companies may get an ISBN with the
406 registration group element "3". This is technically appropriate when
407 the headquarters or one of the offices of the publisher is located in
408 Germany.
410 Information about such a book may not always be available in the
411 German national bibliography, but via the Library of Congress
412 systems. Unfortunately, the German/Austrian/Swiss URN registries
413 that should in this case be contacted may not be aware of the
414 appropriate resolution service.
416 However, the problem posed by the international publishers may well
417 be less severe than it looks. Some international publishers
418 (Springer, for example) give the whole production to the national
419 library of their home country as legal deposit, no matter which
420 country the book was published. Thus everything published by
421 Springer in New York with registration group element "3" should be
422 resolvable via the German national bibliography. On the other hand,
423 when these companies give their home base also as a place of
424 publication, the "home" national library requires the legal deposit.
426 A large union catalogue, such as WorldCat maintained by OCLC
427 [OCLC-WC] could be used to complement the resolution services
428 provided in the national level, or as the default service, if no
429 national services exist or are known to the registry from which the
430 query originates.
432 Due to the semantic structure of ISBN-13, even the registrant element
433 can be used as a "hint". Technically, it is possible to establish a
434 number of URN resolution services maintained by different kinds of
435 organizations. For instance, "978-951-0" is the unique ISBN
436 registrant element of the largest publisher in Finland, Sanoma-WSOY.
437 Resolution requests for ISBNs starting with "978-951-0" can be passed
438 to and dealt with the publisher's server, if and when it is made URN-
439 aware. In such a case, resolving the same URN in multiple locations
440 may provide different services; the national bibliography may be able
441 to provide bibliographic information only, while the publisher can
442 also provide the book itself, on its own terms. Different resolution
443 services may co-exist and complement one another. Same ISBN may be
444 resolved both as URN and as a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
446 [DOIHOME]. URN-based services hosted by, e.g., a national library,
447 might provide only bibliographic data, whereas a service based on the
448 DOI system provided by the publisher might deliver the book, parts of
449 the book or various services related to the work.
451 Persistence of resolution services is largely dependent on
452 persistence of organizations providing them. Thus some services,
453 independent on base technology chosen, may disappear or their content
454 may change much sooner than some peer solutions.
456 4.4. Additional Considerations
458 The basic guidelines for assigning ISBNs to electronic resources are
459 the following:
461 o Format/means of delivery is irrelevant to the decision whether a
462 product needs an ISBN or not. If the content meets the
463 requirement, it gets an ISBN, no matter what the format of the
464 delivery system.
466 o Each format of a digital publication should have a separate ISBN.
467 The definition of a new edition is normally based on one of the
468 two criteria:
470 * A change in the kind of packaging involved: the hard cover
471 edition, the paperback edition and the library-binding edition
472 would each get a separate ISBN. The same applies to different
473 formats of digital files.
475 * A change in the text, excluding packaging or minor changes such
476 as correcting a spelling error. Again, this criterion applies
477 regardless of whether the publication is in printed or in
478 digital form.
480 Although these rules seem clear, their interpretation may vary. As
481 already RFC 2288 [RFC2288] pointed out,
483 The choice of whether to assign a new ISBN or to reuse an existing
484 one when publishing a revised printing of an existing edition of a
485 work or even a revised edition of a work is somewhat subjective.
486 Practice varies from publisher to publisher (indeed, the
487 distinction between a revised printing and a new edition is itself
488 somewhat subjective). The use of ISBNs within the URN framework
489 simply reflects these existing practices. Note that it is likely
490 that an ISBN URN may resolve to many instances of the work (many
491 URLs).
493 These instances may be fully identical, or there may be some minor
494 differences between them. Publishers have also in some occasions re-
495 used the same ISBN for another book. This reasonably rare kind of
496 human error does not threaten or undermine the value of the ISBN
497 system as a whole. Neither do they pose a serious threat to the URN
498 resolution service based on ISBNs. An error should only lead into
499 the retrieval of two or more bibliographic records describing two
500 different monographic publications. Based on the information in the
501 records, a user can choose the correct record from the result set.
503 Most national bibliographies and especially the Books in Print
504 correct ISBN mistakes. The systems then provide cross references
505 "incorrect ISBN -> correct ISBN"). This should be taken into account
506 in the URN resolution process. Further details on the process of
507 assigning ISBNs can be found in section 5 (Namespace registration)
508 below.
510 5. URN Namespace Registration and Use
512 The formal URN Namespace Identifier Registration for the pre-2005
513 version of the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was done in
514 RFC 3187 [RFC3187].
516 The new ISBN standard does not require a new namespace, but the
517 registration is renewed here, as the registrant organization has
518 moved from Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preussischer Kulturbesitz to
519 The International ISBN Agency, London, U.K, and the syntax and
520 resolution details are amended.
522 5.1. URN Namespace ID Registration for the International Standard Book
523 Number (ISBN)
525 This registration describes how International Standard Book Numbers
526 (ISBN) can be supported within the URN framework.
528 [ RFC Editor: please replace "XXXX" in all instances of "RFC XXXX"
529 below by the RFC number assigned to this document. ]
531 Namespace ID: ISBN
533 This Namespace ID has already been assigned to the International
534 Standard Book Number in January 2001 when the namespace was
535 registered for the first time.
537 Registration Information:
539 Version: 2
540 Date: 2010-12-17
542 Declared registrant of the namespace:
544 Registering Organization: The International ISBN Agency
546 Designated Contact Person:
547 Name: Mr. Brian Green
548 Affiliation: Director, The International ISBN Agency
549 Email: brian@isbn-international.org
550 Postal: EDItEUR, 39-41 North Road, London, N7 9DP, U.K.
551 Web URL:
553 Declaration of syntactic structure of NSS part:
555 The namspace-specific string of 'ISBN' URNs is either an ISBN-13
556 (see Section 4.1.2 of RFC XXXX) or an ISBN-10 (see Section 4.1.1
557 of RFC XXXX); the former is preferred.
559 Example 1: URN:ISBN:978-0-395-36341-6
560 Example 2: URN:ISBN:951-0-18435-7
561 Example 3: URN:ISBN:951-20-6541-X
563 Relevant ancillary documentation:
565 The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) is a unique machine-
566 readable identification number, which marks any edition of a book
567 unambiguously. This number is defined in ISO Standard 2108. The
568 number has been in use now for 30 years and has revolutionised the
569 international book-trade. 170 countries and territories are
570 officially ISBN members, and more of them are joining the system.
572 The administration of the ISBN system is carried out on three
573 levels:
574 International agency,
575 Group agencies,
576 Publisher levels.
578 The International ISBN agency is located in London. The main
579 functions of the Agency are:
581 * To promote, co-ordinate and supervise the world-wide use of the
582 ISBN system.
584 * To approve the definition and structure of group agencies.
586 * To allocate group identifiers to group agencies.
588 * To advise on the establishment and functioning of group
589 agencies.
591 * To advise group agencies on the allocation of international
592 publisher identifiers.
594 * To publish the assigned group numbers and publisher prefixes in
595 up-to-date form.
597 Information about ISBN usage in general can be found from the ISBN
598 FAQ, available at .
600 Conformance with URN Syntax:
602 Legal ISBN characters are 0-9 and hyphen for ISBN-13 and 0-9,
603 hyphen, and X for ISBN-10. No percent-encoding is needed.
605 [[ Editorial Note: Need to discuss new specification requirements
606 from the RFC 2141bis draft! ]]
608 Rules for Lexical Equivalence of NSS part:
610 ISBN numbers are usually printed with the letters 'ISBN' and a
611 single blank preceding them (for instance: ISBN 951-746-795-8).
612 The data preceding the actual number must be removed before the
613 ISBNs are analysed. The ISBN serves directly as the namespace-
614 specific string (NSS) of 'ISBN' URNs.
616 Prior to comparing the NSS of two ISBN-based URNs for equivalence,
617 all hyphens MUST be removed and letter 'X' capitalized. Prior to
618 comparing a URN based on ISBN-10 with a URN based on ISBN-13, the
619 ISBN-10 MUST be converted to the ISBN-13 form. This step is
620 necessary since the ISBN-10s may or may not be already converted
621 to the new form; libraries SHOULD keep the old ISBN since it is
622 the one printed in books published prior to 2007, while publishers
623 may convert the old identifiers originally assigned in ISBN-10
624 form and use the equivalent ISBN-13s in unchanged reprints of the
625 books, which according to the ISBN assignment rules should not
626 receive a new ISBN.
628 Note that, according to RFC 2141bis, the prefix "URN:ISBN:" is
629 case-insensitive; generic URI parsing and comparison software
630 frequently uses lower case as the canonical (normalized) form.
632 The URNs are equivalent if the normalized forms obtained this way
633 compare equal.
635 Identifier uniqueness and persistence considerations:
637 ISBN is a unique and persistent identifier. An ISBN, once it has
638 been assigned, must never be re-used for another book. Moreover,
639 a single manifestation of a book must never get a new ISBN.
640 'ISBN' URNs inherit the uniqueness and persistence properties from
641 the underlying ISBN namespace.
643 There may be multiple manifestations of a single literary work
644 such as a novel. In such case each manifestation shall receive a
645 different ISBN. ISO has developed a new standard, ISTC
646 (International Standard Text Code, ISO 21047-2009) that enables
647 identification of textual works. See
648 for more information. In the
649 standard itself, annex E describes the relations between ISBN and
650 other publication identifiers and ISTC.
652 Process of identifier assignment:
654 Assignment of ISBNs is controlled, and 'ISBN' URNs immediately
655 inherit this property. There are three levels of control: the
656 international agency, group agencies that typically operate in the
657 national level, and finally each publisher is responsible of using
658 the ISBN system correctly. Small publishers may demand ISBN
659 numbers one at a time by contacting the ISBN group agency. Large
660 publishers receive ISBN blocks from which they allocate ISBNs to
661 the books according to the ISBN assignment rules.
663 Process for identifier resolution:
665 See Section 4.3 of RFC XXXX.
667 Validation mechanism:
669 The check digit helps to assure the correctness of an ISBN number
670 assigned for a book when it has been entered or processed by a
671 human. Applications processing bibliographic data such as
672 integrated library systems typically can check the correctness of
673 both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 (and make conversions between the two).
674 If the number is wrong due to, e.g., a typing error made by a
675 publisher, a correct ISBN is usually assigned afterwards.
676 Although the book will only contain the wrong number, national
677 bibliography and system used by the book trade often will contain
678 both the wrong and new, correct ISBN number.
680 Scope:
682 ISBN is a global identifier system used for identification of
683 monographic publications. It is very widely used and supported by
684 the publishing industry.
686 6. Security Considerations
688 This document proposes means of encoding ISBNs within the URN
689 framework. An ISBN-based URN resolution service is depicted here
690 both for ISBN-10 and ISBN-13, but only in a fairly generic level;
691 thus questions of secure or authenticated resolution mechanisms are
692 excluded. It does not deal with means of validating the integrity or
693 authenticating the source or provenance of URNs that contain ISBNs.
694 Issues regarding intellectual property rights associated with objects
695 identified by the ISBNs are also beyond the scope of this document,
696 as are questions about rights to the databases that might be used to
697 construct resolvers.
699 7. IANA Considerations
701 IANA is asked to update the existing registration of the Formal URN
702 Namespace 'ISBN' using the template given above in Section 5.1, which
703 follows the outline specified in RFC 3406bis
704 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg].
706 8. Acknowledgements
708 This draft version is the outcome of work started in 2008 and brought
709 to the IETF in 2010 to launch a much larger effort to revise the
710 basic URN RFCs as a part of project PersID (http://www.persid.org).
711 PersID is developing tools for establishing an European network of
712 URN resolvers concentrating on bibliographic identifiers. The aim in
713 the IETF is to bring these RFCs in alignment with the current URI
714 Standard (STD 63, RFC 3986), ABNF, and IANA guidelines. The
715 discussion in PersID has contributed significantly to this work.
717 Leslie Daigle has provided valuable guidance in the initial draft
718 stage of this memo.
720 Your name could go here ...
722 9. References
724 9.1. Normative References
726 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn]
727 Hoenes, A., "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Syntax",
728 draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc2141bis-urn-00 (work in progress),
729 November 2010.
731 [I-D.ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg]
732 Hoenes, A., "Uniform Resource Name (URN) Namespace
733 Definition Mechanisms",
734 draft-ietf-urnbis-rfc3406bis-urn-ns-reg-00 (work in
735 progress), December 2010.
737 [ISO1] ISO, "Information and documentation - The International
738 Standard Book Number (ISBN)", ISO 2108-1992, 1992.
740 [ISO2] ISO, "Information and documentation - The International
741 Standard Book Number (ISBN)", ISO 2108-2005, 2005.
743 [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
744 Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
746 9.2. Informative References
748 [DOIHOME] International DOI Foundation, "The Digital Object
749 Identifier System", .
751 [IANA-URI]
752 IANA, "URI Schemes Registry",
753 .
755 [IANA-URN]
756 IANA, "URN Namespace Registry",
757 .
759 [ISBNORG] International ISBN Agency, "",
760 .
762 [OCLC-WC] OCLC WorldCat, "WorldCat.org: The World's Largest Library
763 Catalog", .
765 [PREFIX] International ISBN Agency, "ISBN Prefix Ranges",
766 .
768 [RFC2141] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.
770 [RFC2288] Lynch, C., Preston, C., and R. Jr, "Using Existing
771 Bibliographic Identifiers as Uniform Resource Names",
772 RFC 2288, February 1998.
774 [RFC2611] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
775 "URN Namespace Definition Mechanisms", BCP 33, RFC 2611,
776 June 1999.
778 [RFC3044] Rozenfeld, S., "Using The ISSN (International Serial
779 Standard Number) as URN (Uniform Resource Names) within an
780 ISSN-URN Namespace", RFC 3044, January 2001.
782 [RFC3187] Hakala, J. and H. Walravens, "Using International Standard
783 Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names", RFC 3187,
784 October 2001.
786 [RFC3406] Daigle, L., van Gulik, D., Iannella, R., and P. Faltstrom,
787 "Uniform Resource Names (URN) Namespace Definition
788 Mechanisms", BCP 66, RFC 3406, October 2002.
790 [RFC3986] Berners-Lee, T., Fielding, R., and L. Masinter, "Uniform
791 Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax", STD 66,
792 RFC 3986, January 2005.
794 Appendix A. Draft Change Log
796 [[ RFC-Editor: Whole section to be deleted before RFC publication. ]]
798 A.1. draft-hakala-rfc3187bis-isbn-urn-00 to draft-ietf-urnbis-*-00
800 - formal updates for a WG draft;
801 - RFC 2288 now obsoleted and made Historic;
802 - added references to rfc2141bis and rfc3406bis;
803 - Sect.3 reorganized and amended: Namespace/Community Considerations;
804 - registrartion template adapted to rfc3406bis [-00];
805 - numerous editorial fixes and improvements.
807 Authors' Addresses
809 Maarit Huttunen
810 The National Library of Finland
811 P.O. Box 26
812 Helsinki, Helsinki University FIN-00014
813 Finland
815 EMail: maarit.huttunen@helsinki.fi
817 Juha Hakala
818 The National Library of Finland
819 P.O. Box 15
820 Helsinki, Helsinki University FIN-00014
821 Finland
823 EMail: juha.hakala@helsinki.fi
824 Alfred Hoenes (editor)
825 TR-Sys
826 Gerlinger Str. 12
827 Ditzingen D-71254
828 Germany
830 EMail: ah@TR-Sys.de