Canadian ISBN Publishers' Directory

Search Help

Table of Contents

• Search Fields
• Search Results
• Search Terms
• Québec ISBN Data
• Further Information

Advanced Search Help

Search Fields

Begin your search of the Canadian ISBN Publishers' Directory by choosing a search field from the menu instruction "Select search field". You are given a choice of six ways to search the database: by Publisher Keyword, Publisher Name, ISBN, Contact Name, City, or by Postal Code.

You may also select the Publisher Status option along with any search field.

Unless otherwise instructed, the system will automatically perform a search using the PUBLISHER KEYWORD field.

1. Search on PUBLISHER KEYWORD

Select PUBLISHER KEYWORD when you are not certain of the full name of the publisher or of the order of words in the publisher's name. Use only those words that are likely to appear in the name as your search terms.

In a keyword search the order of the search terms does not matter. The system will retrieve all of the records in which those search terms appear in any order.

For example, a search request entered as "paper pulp" will locate all publishers whose names include those words in any order, e.g. the "Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada".

A keyword search will also find variations of the search request. For example, a keyword search for "paper" will retrieve the records for "Papertech Marketing Group, Inc." and "Paperblank Book Company", along with the record for "Paper Works Press".

2. Searching on PUBLISHER NAME

Choose PUBLISHER NAME if you are certain of the publisher's name or part of that name.

The system will perform a direct search of all the names in the ISBN Directory database. In a direct search, the terms in the search request are matched in order from left to right against publishers' names in the database and any records in which all those words appear together in the same order are retrieved.

For example, a search request using the phrase "pulp and paper" will retrieve the record for the "Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada". However, a search using the phrase "paper and pulp" would not, because the words do not appear in that order in the Institute's name. Similarly, a search on the words "pulp paper" will not retrieve that record because these two search terms are separated by the word "and" in this publisher's name.

3. Searching on ISBN PREFIX(ES)

Use ISBN when you have a specific ISBN for a Canadian publication and want to find the name and address of the publisher associated with that particular publication.

The system will automatically extract the publisher prefix element from the full ISBN and will search the database for the publisher associated with that ISBN publisher prefix.

You may type the ISBN with or without hyphens or spaces.

For example, entering an ISBN as "0969016115" or "0-9690161-15" or "0 9690161 15" will retrieve the name and address of the "Medical Council of Canada" which has the ISBN publisher prefix "0-9690161".

All ISBNs assigned by the Canadian ISBN Agency begin with the digit "0" or "1". Please note, however, that not all ISBNs beginning with "0" and "1" are Canadian; these prefixes are also used by ISBN agencies in the U.S.A. and United Kingdom. If your search does not yield any results, either the ISBN is for a foreign edition of a publication or it could be a very recent assignment, which has not yet been incorporated into the ISBN Directory database.

4. Searching on CONTACT NAME

Select CONTACT NAME if you are certain of the full or partial contact name of the publisher or of the order of words in the publisher's contact name. Use only those words which are likely to appear in the contact name as your search terms.

The system will perform a direct search of all the contact names in the ISBN Directory database. In a direct search, the terms in the search request are matched in order from left to right against publishers' contact names in the database and any records in which all those words appear together in the same order are retrieved.

For example, a search request using the phrase "John Sm" will retrieve records for the "John Smith" or "John Smyth". However, "Smith John" will not be retrieved because the order of the search terms are from left to right. If you would like to retrieve the records using any search order, please use the Advanced Search.

5. Searching on CITY

Choose CITY when you are certain of the publisher's city.

This type of search will perform a direct search of all the city names in the ISBN Directory database. (Please refer to Searching on CONTACT NAME for direct search restrictions.)

6. Searching on POSTAL CODE

Choose the POSTAL CODE search field when you are certain of the full or partial postal code of a publisher or if you wish to locate publishers in a specific postal code area. The system will perform a direct search of all the postal codes in the ISBN Directory database. When entering a full postal code, remember to include the space.

For example, a search for "K1K" will retrieve all records with postal codes that start with "K1K". A search for "K1K4L8" will NOT retrieve any records because the space is missing. To conduct a successful search, simply enter "K1K 4L8".

Selecting PUBLISHER STATUS

This optional search criteria, allows users to search for publishers which are "Active", "Ceased", or both ("Any").

Unless you specify otherwise, the system will perform the search on "Any" publisher status by default. You can limit the search to retrieve only "Active" or "Ceased" publishers.

Search Terms

Initial Articles

Do not include initial articles in your search request. For example, a search request for "The Alpine Club of Canada" should be submitted as "Alpine Club of Canada".

Capitalization

You may use either upper or lower case letters in any combination.

Punctuation

In most cases you may ignore punctuation.

If the search term includes punctuation and your first search produces no results, try substituting a space for the punctuation marks in your search term.

Diacritics

The system does not distinguish between accented and unaccented letters in the search terms. For example, searching on the term "Collège" will retrieve all records with either "College" or "Collège" in the publishers' names.

Government Publishers

When searching for government publishers in the ISBN Directory it is better to use Publisher Keyword as your search field since it is more flexible in searching for names when the exact form of the name is unknown.

Most government publishers included in the ISBN Directory are entered directly under their own name, e.g. "Saskatchewan Research Council". However, some subordinate agencies of government are entered under the name of the jurisdiction involved. In these cases the jurisdiction will appear first, followed by a parenthetical qualifier such as "Government of", and then the name of the subordinate agency.

Examples:

Alberta (Government of). Public Affairs Bureau

Calgary (City of). Heritage Advisory Board

In some cases, however, subordinate agencies are entered directly under their own name if that name already includes the jurisdication.

Example:

City of Vancouver Archives

By searching on PUBLISHER KEYWORD to retrieve information about a government publisher, it is not necessary to know in advance exactly how a government publisher's name is recorded in the ISBN Directory.

Search Results

The results of your search will be displayed on one or more pages, depending on the number of search results and the option you have selected for the number of records to be displayed per page.

Unless you specify otherwise, the system will display a maximum of 5 publisher records per page in the search results. You may increase this limit to 10 or 25 records per page by selecting either of those options from the menu provided on the search page.

Record Display

The publisher information is displayed in the following order:

• Name of the publisher

• Street address and/or post office box

• City, followed by the postal abbreviation for the province

• Postal code

• Telephone number

• Fax number

• E-mail address (with a link for sending e-mail messages to that publisher)

• Web site address (with a link to that publisher's Web site; see explanation)

• ISBN prefix(es) (with a link to Library and Archives Canada's online catalogue; see explanation)

• Former name(s) under which that publisher operated

• Other name(s) used by that publisher (including acronyms, variant names, and other language versions)

• Date that the publisher first registered with the Canadian ISBN Agency

• Date of the latest update to their listing in the ISBN Directory

If any of the above information is absent from the record, it will not appear in the display.

Links Within the Publisher Record

Links to the Publisher's Web Site:

The publisher record may also include a URL (internet address) for the publisher's Web site (e.g. "Web site: www.collectionscanada.ca"). These URLs contain hypertext links; clicking on the URL will take you directly to the Web site for that publisher. Please note that if their URL changes without notifying Library and Archives Canada, the link will become outdated.

To return to the Canadian ISBN Publishers' Directory, use your Web browser's "Back" button.

Links from ISBN to Library and Archives Canada's online catalogue:

Each ISBN prefix displayed in the publisher record contains a hypertext link to the "Browse ISBN" file in AMICUS Web, the Web version of Library and Archives Canada's online catalogue.

Clicking on an ISBN prefix in the ISBN Directory will take you to the range of ISBNs in AMICUS Web that is closest to that ISBN prefix. If Library and Archives Canada has catalogue records for any of that publisher's publications, their ISBNs will be included in the sequential list of ISBNs shown in AMICUS Web. The ISBNs associated with the publisher prefix you selected will normally be listed starting from the second item in the AMICUS Web list.

Clicking on an ISBN in AMICUS Web will display Library and Archives Canada's catalogue record for the specific publication to which that ISBN was assigned.

To return from these links back to the Canadian ISBN Publishers' Directory, simply use your Web browser's "Back" button.

Québec ISBN Data

ISBN assignments for many francophone publishers can be found in the Répertoire des numéros ISBN des éditeurs francophones canadiens, located on the Web at
www.bnquebec.ca/isbn/accueil.htm

Such ISBNs are assigned by the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and begin with the digit "2".

For more information please contact:

Further Information

Further information concerning ISBN can be obtained by contacting: