National Archives of Malawi

An ISBN promotes the sales of a book. Contact us if you want to know more.

What is an ISBN?

ISBN is an acronym, which stands for International Standard Book Number. It is a unique ten-digit code number, which identifies a particular publication from one specific publisher in a particular area, region or country, and is unique to that title or edition. It is an internationally recognized system of numbering books and other related documents. The system was developed in Europe in 1972 by the International Standards Organization (ISO) in response to a growing need by publishers and book distributors for a unique identification number that could facilitate computerized ordering and inventory control of published items.

 As mentioned earlier, an ISBN consists of ten digits, which are divided into four parts. The four parts are described as follows: -

• Group Identifier – This is the first part, which represents a particular country.

• Publisher Identifier – This part identifies a publisher in a particular country.

• Title Identifier – This is a name for a particular book, published by a particular publisher.

• Check Digit – A Check Digit simply provides proof of the correctness of a number. If the number has been calculated wrongly, the computer will reject it.

The main purpose of the ISBN is to identify publications and their publishers. It also promotes communication between publishers, booksellers, distributors, libraries and information centres, and serves as an inventory code for published titles from different areas or countries. It is also an aid to the execution of book orders and a bibliographic element in cataloguing of library materials. It is used both in national and international databases.

Other related systems to the ISBN are the International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) and the International Standard Music Number (ISMN). The ISSN is used for numbering of periodicals like newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, etc, while the ISMN is used for the numbering of published music. The advantages of these two systems are the same with the ISBN. At the moment, Malawi is not a member of the two systems.

APPOINTMENT OF A NATIONAL ISBN AGENCY

Following the approval of the system to be introduced in Malawi in 1991, the Government appointed the National Archives of Malawi to be the National ISBN Agency. By then, the National Archives of Malawi was operating under the Ministry of Education and Culture as it was formerly known.

A report was sent to the International Agency in Berlin by the University Librarian about the appointment of the National Archives of Malawi as the country’s National ISBN Agency. The International Agency in Berlin was very glad about the news such that they allocated Malawi with a GROUP IDENTIFIER number 99908. Most publishers who were known at that time were assigned with Publisher Identifiers. This marked the beginning of the introduction of the ISBN system in Malawi.

DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AGENCY

To-date the ISBN Agency in Malawi has been in operation for over a decade. At the inception of the system in 1991, the Agency had identified only 107 publishers in the country. In 1999, the number of publishers had risen to 150 and only 52 of them had registered with the Group as ISBN users. As at the date of writing this overview, the Agency had identified over 230 publishers and only 75 were assigned with publisher prefixes.

The fixing of Publisher Identifiers is based on what was allocated to the Group by the International ISBN Agency in Berlin. Our publisher prefix ranges are fixed in three categories, viz: 0, 10-89 and 900-999. However due to the rapid growth of book production by some publishers in the country who were assigned with prefixes in the range of 10-89, it has been noted that two of them have already exhausted their Title Identifiers in the range of 00-99 titles.  The publishers who have exhausted their first Title Identifiers are Macmillan Malawi and Malawi Institute of Education. However assigning them with new Publisher Identifiers, after we had sought advice from the International Agency, solved this problem.

As such, you will notice from the statistical table below that to-date we have allocated 77 Identifiers to 75 publishers. The 75 publishers who are registered in the use of the ISBN system represent 32.6% of the total number of publishers identified in the country i.e. out of the 230 known publishers.

The National Archives of Malawi was appointed the National ISBN Agency for Malawi because of its legal depository right whereby every publisher in the country is obliged to deposit a copy of their publications with the National Archives of Malawi for posterity, reference and research. This unique responsibility enables the National Archives of Malawi to frequently interact with publishers in the country to ensure their compliance with the provision of the Printed Publications Act (Chap. 19 : 01). As a result of this interaction, the Government felt that it would be easy for the National Archives of Malawi to co-ordinate the activities of the system.