Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Numbers! Too. Many. Numbers!

I just have to complain about the new 13-digit ISBNs. I guess that many people won't even be aware of this, but starting in 2007 all ISBNs are switching from 10-digit to 13-digits. Apparently we're running out of the 10-digit ones. Who knew there were so many books out there? Our database at work just converted to the 13-digit system over the weekend and for reasons that I won't go into here (because they're confusing and very boring) this creates a pain in my ass.

And while we're talking numbers, I think you Canadians out there are getting a better deal on American books. Publishers have conversion charts that tell what Canadian price to use for each American price. So last year, a $15 book got a $21 Canadian price. They've just revised our conversion chart so that starting in September, a $15 book is now only $18.50 in Canada. Obviously there are some principles of economics at work here that my little brain can not handle, but it seems like you guys are getting more book for less dollars. Or can someone who doesn't have a math-challenged brain explain this to me?

2 comments:

julieree said...

can't help you with the numbers questions as my brain is even more math-challenged than yours.

I do, however, totally dig that picture of the numbers. that's a nice picture of numbers.

~ames~ said...

Yay!