Help:ISBN links

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This is a copy of the master help page at Meta. Do not edit this copy.
Edits will be lost in the next update from the master page. See below for more information.

Template:Phh:ISBN links

For a book with ISBN e.g. 0131103628, Special:Booksources/0131103628 gives the text of MediaWiki:Booksourcetext and links regarding the book according to the contents of the page "Book sources" in the project namespace (ns4, here: Meta), where each occurrence of MAGICNUMBER is replaced with the ISBN.

If there is no such "Book sources" page, a default page is displayed. It uses the settings $wgBookstoreListEn in Language.php, currently:

/* private */ $wgBookstoreListEn = array(
        "AddALL" => "http://www.addall.com/New/Partner.cgi?query=$1&type=ISBN",
        "PriceSCAN" => "http://www.pricescan.com/books/bookDetail.asp?isbn=$1",
        "Barnes & Noble" => "http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=$1",
        "Amazon.com" => "http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=$1"
);

The name of the book sources page can be changed by editing MediaWiki:Booksources, but the name space cannot.

Alternative

Use a template like Template:ISBN allowing {{ISBN|193151447X}} to produce something like:

Please add ISBNs for the books listed.

193151447X may have books without ISBNs. Listing ISBNs makes it easier to conduct research.improve the article or discuss this issue on the talk page.

However, often a separate page would be desirable. This can be done, but requires a page like 193151447X for every book. Those pages can call Template:Bk, so that they only have to contain {{bk}}.

edit

Wikipedia-specific help

Shortcut: WP:ISBN

The MediaWiki software recognizes inline International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs); for example: the wikitext ISBN 978-0-12-345678-9 becomes ISBN 978-0-12-345678-9 (the dashes are technically optional, but stylistically preferred), which corresponds to Special:Booksources/9780123456789.

This is a link to a special booksource page, the page Wikipedia:Book sources with each instance of MAGICNUMBER on this page replaced with the ISBN (so a template with a parameter, but with a special syntax just for this application). The page contains links to library catalogs and bookstores where one may search for the book corresponding to the ISBN. It is important when making a link to not put a colon after "ISBN". Note that you can also link directly to the [[Special:Booksources/...]] page — this may occasionally be useful when appearance is an issue. ISBNs come in two flavours, 10 characters and 13 digits. Please use the 13 digit one if available (if nowhere else, it is written under the bar-code - the hyphenation will be 978- then the same as the 10 digit).

Some think that this is useful, as it allows readers to go to online stores and purchase books. However, ISBNs only identify a particular edition of a book, and the reader will not see the full range of versions of the book for sale. Please do not use ISBNs alone to identify books: add a proper citation as well as the ISBN. Also note that ISBNs are not required of citations; popular citation styles like Chicago, MLA, and APA do not use ISBNs. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style, Wikipedia:Cite your sources.

To suggest additions to the page, see Wikipedia talk:Book sources.

Note that books before about 1970 usually do not have an ISBN (although if published in the UK or maybe the U.S. they may have an SBN). One place to get the numbers is the Library of Congress catalog, although this will tend to give an American ISBN over say, an Indian or Australian one.

Also, note that a registered ISBN, even one which appears with a corresponding book page on a major book distributor database such as Amazon.com, is not definite proof that such a book exists. The ISBN is assigned before the book is actually produced, so the publisher can advertise it--but not all such plans come to fruition, any more than in other enterprises. In addition, ISBN and Amazon.com registration seems to have been abused in attempted hoaxes on Wikipedia in the past.^{[citation needed]}

Books are of course, an excellent source of their own ISBNs, however even here perhaps one in 10,000 are printed wrongly, mainly from small publishers.

Help:ISBN links

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