A Concise Guide to Book Industry Product Identifiers
Prepared by the ISBN-13 Task Force of the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
EAN/UCC-13
International Article Number (in its 13-digit form)
Used internationally to identify all types of products, including books (see “Bookland EAN” below)
Hyphenation and spacing: never presented with hyphens or spaces
Numerically equivalent to the Bookland EAN and ISBN-13 for products numbered with ISBNs
Sunrise 2005 encouraged all companies in the North American supply chain to ensure that their systems (including point-of-sale systems) could read and store this number as a product identifier
Includes both the Bookland EAN numbers and identifiers in ranges issued by the local GS1 agency
Bar coding: uses a standard EAN/UCC-13 bar code (with or without five-digit price add-on)
May be easily converted to a GTIN-14 by prefixing a leading numeral and recalculating the check digit
Bookland EAN
International Article Number (in its 13-digit form)
A subset of the EAN/UCC-13 family reserved exclusively for international use on books and related products (also known as Bookland EAN/UCC-13)
Hyphenation and spacing: never presented with hyphens or spaces
Numerically equivalent to the ISBN-13 for products numbered with ISBNs
Current EAN ranges reserved for the use of books and related products are 978- and 979-
Should be used only to identify books and related products as defined in the ISBN Standard (and in the contract between ISBN International and GS1) (see BISG Policy Statement POL-0701, downloadable from www.bisg.org/documents/policies.html)
Bar coding: uses a standard EAN/UCC-13 bar code (with or without five-digit price add-on)
May be easily converted to a GTIN-14 by prefixing a leading numeral and recalculating the check digit
ISBN-13
International Standard Book Number (in its current, 13-digit form)
The exclusive form of the ISBN for all books published after 2006
Hyphenation and spacing: may be presented with or without hyphens or spaces between its elements. When the intention is to present the ISBN in a “human-readable” form (above the bar code, on the copyright page, in a printed catalog, etc.), hyphens or spaces are required, and the number must be preceded by the abbreviation “ISBN”
Numerically equivalent to the Bookland EAN when used in its nonhyphenated form
Should be used—in conjunction with the ISBN-10—on books published before 2007 whenever such a practice is feasible
Should be used only on books and book-related products as defined in the ISBN Standard (ISO 2108) and the contract between ISBN International and GS1 (see BISG Policy Statement POL-0701, downloadable from www.bisg.org/documents/policies.html)
Bar coding: uses a standard EAN/UCC-13 bar code (with or without five-digit price add-on)
May be easily converted to a GTIN-14 by prefixing a leading numeral and recalculating the check digit (see below)
GTIN-14
Global Trade Item Number (in its 14-digit form)
Used internationally to identify products (also known as the EAN/UCC-14)
Required in the Global Data Synchronization Network
Used to transmit packaging information only. Not to be used on single units of product intended for sale to consumers; such product should be labeled with an EAN/UCC-13 identifier
Hyphenation and spacing: never presented with hyphens or spaces
Encompasses the EAN/UCC-13; created by prefixing a single numeral to an EAN/UCC-13 and recalculating the check digit
Bookland EAN numbers may be easily converted to GTIN-14
Bar coding: uses a standard ITF-14 or UCC/EAN-128 bar code only on packaging containers; these bar codes are not intended for point-of-sale scanning
May be easily converted to an EAN/UCC-13 by removing the leading digit and recalculating the check digit
GTIN-14 numbers with the leading numeral of 0 (zero) may be converted to EAN/UCC-13 numbers by simply removing the leading 0; no check-digit recalculation is necessary in such a case
Item-specific UPC-12 (EAN/UCC-12)
Universal Product Code (in its 12-digit form)
Used in North America to identify a single unit of a specific product
Often referred to as “UPC-12,” although, in fact, the term “UPC” is specific to the bar-coding symbology
Hyphenation and spacing: never presented with hyphens or spaces
Should never be reused. GS1-US rules allow for the reuse of UCC-12 identifiers after a certain period, but BISAC Product Metadata Best Practices expressly forbid the reuse of item-specific UPC-12 identifiers
Continued use on products already numbered with a Bookland EAN is discouraged (see Policy Statement POL-0701, downloadable from www.bisg.org/documents/policies.html)
May be converted to an EAN/UCC-13 by prefixing the UCC-12 with the numeral 0. No recalculation of the check digit is required under such circumstances
May be converted to a GTIN-14 by prefixing the UCC-12 with two zeroes. No recalculation of the check digit is required under such circumstances
Bar coding: Uses a standard item-specific UPC-A bar code (with or without five-digit add-on)
Price-point UPC-12 (EAN/UCC-12)
Universal Product Code (in its 12-digit form)
Refers to several different products (from the same supplier) sold at the same price
Not a unique product identifier
Still used on some mass-market paperback books
Continued use in the book industry is discouraged
Hyphenation and spacing: never presented with hyphens or spaces
Bar coding: uses a standard price-point UPC-A bar code with a five-digit add-on
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) is the U.S. book industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. Its mission is to create a more informed, empowered, and efficient book industry supply chain, and its members include publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians, and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. To learn more, visit www.bisg.org.
The Primary Product Identifier
The Book Industry Study Group has established a Best Practice of prefixing a Bookland EAN with the numeral 0 (zero) to create a single-unit GTIN-14. This practice does not require the recalculation of the check digit of the GTIN-14.
BISG has endorsed the use of the GTIN-14 as the primary product identifier in electronic communications; users of electronic data (i.e., EDI) should check with their trading partners regarding their needs for other product identifiers on this list.
Use of the GTIN-14
? The numerals 1 through 8 in the leading position of the GTIN-14 may be used to identify packaging units (e.g., carton, pallet, container) larger than a single unit of a product.
?“Pre-packs” are not considered a packaging level requiring a GTIN-14 prefixed with a number other than 0 (zero). Pre-packs may contain multiple units of a single title or multiples of mixed titles. Pre-packs should be identified with a unique ISBN-13 (i.e., an ISBN-13 different from that used to identify the component title[s]). To create a GTIN-14 for a pre-pack, add a 0 prefix to the pre-pack ISBN-13.
? The supplier of a product defines the use of the single-digit prefix (i.e., the leading digit of the GTIN-14) to identify packaging levels other than a single unit. The metadata accompanying a packaging-level GTIN-14 describes the meaning of the leading digit in such cases.
? Prefixing an EAN/UCC-13 with a leading digit other than 0 requires that the check digit of the GTIN-14 be recalculated.
? The numeral 9 in the leading position of the GTIN-14 is reserved for use on products sold in variable measures (e.g., products sold by weight).
? Despite BISG’s Best Practice for the creation of a single-unit GTIN-14 (see “The Primary Product Identifier,” above), one cannot assume that GTIN-14 with a leading 0 is always a single unit of a product; in some circumstances such a GTIN-14 may represent a quantity pack of a product.
? GTIN-14 identifiers beginning with a number other than 0 are never a single unit of a product.
? Where pre-packs are sold under a GTIN-14 identifier, the GTIN-14 should always be created by prefixing the EAN/UCC-13 for the pre-pack with a 0.
? Prefixing an EAN/UCC-13 with a 0 to create a GTIN-14 means that the packaging level represented by the corresponding EAN/UCC-13 has not changed.
Page PAGE 4 of NUMPAGES 4
Last Revised 08/12/2005
© 2005, The Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
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