Some examples of types of monographic publications to which an ISBN 

shall be

 assigned

are:

  Printed books and pamphlets

  Braille publications

  Publications that are not intended by the publisher to be updated regularly or continued

indefinitely

  Individual articles

2

 or issues of a particular continuing resource (but not the continuing

resource in its entirety)

  Maps

  Educational/instructional films, videos and transparencies

  Audiobooks on cassette, or CD, or DVD (talking books)

  Electronic publications either on physical carriers (such as machine readable tapes,

diskettes, or CD ROMs) or on the Internet

  Digitised copies of print monographic publications

  Microform publications

  Educational or instructional software

  Mixed media publications (where the principal constituent is text based)

Some examples of the types of material to which an ISBN 

shall 

NOT

 be

 assigned are:

  Continuing resources

3

 treated in their entirety as bibliographic entities (individual

issues may qualify for ISBNs)

  Abstract entities

4

 such as textual works and other abstract creations of intellectual or

artistic content

  Ephemeral printed materials such as advertising matter and the like

  Printed music

  Art prints and art folders without title page and text

  Personal documents (such as an electronic curriculum vitae or personal profile)

  Greetings cards

  Music sound recordings

  Software that is intended for any purpose other than educational or instructional

  Electronic bulletin boards

  E mails and other electronic correspondence

  Games

For further information including clarification about whether or not a particular type of

product may qualify, please contact your local ISBN registration agency.

2

Where individual articles are made available separately by a publisher, they qualify as monographic publications and shall

be assigned an ISBN. This does not apply in the case of offprint copies, which are ordered by the author(s) of the article for

their own distribution purposes.

3

A publication that is issued over time with no predetermined conclusion.  Such a publication is usually issued in

successive or integrating issues, which generally have numerical and or chronological designations. Typical examples

include serials such as newspapers, periodicals, journals, magazines, etc., and integrating resources such as updating

loose leaf publications and updating websites. Individual articles or issues that are available separately qualify as

monographic publications and may be identified by the ISBN.

4  For example, each separate product form of the novel 

The Old Man and the Sea

 is eligible for an ISBN, but the novel

itself, as an abstract textual work, shall not be assigned an ISBN.

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