The Union Minster of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani launched a portal for registration and allotment of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) at a function held in New Delhi.   The Union Minister said that the ISBN portal has been created in a short period of time, to facilitate publishers as well as the authors to register for ISBN online. This interactive automated system would provide fast and efficient services in a stipulated time frame to the Publishers and Authors as well.

To address the problem of free download of works of authors from the internet, she assured the book writing fraternity that the issue will be discussed with the concerned ministries including DeitY which will be shared with the states.

Amish Tripathi, well-known author was the Chief Guest on the occasion. He said that, “ISBN gives an identity to a book. If you do not have it, the bookshops will not sell it.” He observed that ISBN is free in India unlike other countries like US and UK where publishers need to pay huge money for its registration.

Did You Know?

• ISBN is a unique number used to identify monographic publications. Displayed in barcode format, ISBN is a 13 character identification allotted by International ISBN Agency based in UK through the National ISBN Agency.
• It provides access to bibliographic data bases used by the book industry and libraries to provide information.
• Raja Ram Mohan Roy National Agency for ISBN is responsible for ISBN registration in the country and is affiliated to UK based International Agency.
• The ISBN Nos. are allotted free of cost.
• Over a period of time with the growth of the publishing industry and awareness about ISBN, the request for ISBN has increased exponentially.
• The ISBN portal seeks to completely automate the process of seeking application, their examination and allotment of ISBNs. The developed software has several modules – users’ registration, online application submission, ISBN generation which includes ISBN generation request from the National Agency to the International Agency at UK.