Correct, but generally the publisher. For example, our Texas Western Press at UTEP has the first part of the ISBN number 0-87404 on all of our books, regardless of who does the actual printing. The remaining part of the number specifies the particular book. Linda Doerre wrote: > Jill, > I think he is probably correct about ISBN being assigned to printing houses. In cataloging, >I noticed that the first part of the numbers are usually very much alike from the same publisher. You can print the same edition but in paperback and get a completely different >number. Each book and edition has it's own number. Hope this is some what useful. Art Harris -- Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968-0915 phone (915)747-6985; fax (915)747-5808; [log in to unmask] http://www.utep.edu/leb http://nasa.utep.edu/chih/chihdes.htm ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).