Wikipedia:ISBN

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The MediaWiki software recognizes inline International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs); for example: the wikitext ISBN 0-12-345678-9 becomes ISBN 0-12-345678-9 (the dashes are technically optional, but stylistically preferred), which corresponds to Special:Booksources/0123456789. 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.

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 1970 usually do not have an ISBN (although if published in the UK 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]}