Jordan Hill

Oxford OX2 8DP

UK

Tel: (+44) (0)1865 314033

Fax: (+44) (0)1865 314475

E mail: n.paskin@doi.org

URL: http://www.doi.org

13.2 GTIN 

The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is a generic term for all the EAN.UCC product

identifiers including the EAN 13.  Any of these identifiers can be represented as a 14 digit

number, right justified and padded with leading zeros where necessary, and it is

recommended that databases should be able to store the full 14 digit form.  However,

14 digit numbers where the first digit is non zero are reserved for packs that are not sold at

the retail point of sale (e.g., pallets or cartons). Some book trade suppliers may, by

agreement with their trading partners, use a non zero leading digit to indicate a particular

pack size (e.g., 20 copies of a book).

A 14 digit GTIN identifying a book will therefore always begin with a leading zero, and the

remaining 13 digits will show the EAN 13 number. (N.B: The 14 digit GTIN will never be

shown in bar code form on a book).

13.3 Internet identifiers: URN 

Uniform Resource Names (URNs) are persistent resource identifiers. Their syntax, defined

in Internet standard RFC 2141, is simple: 

 ::= "urn:"  ":" 

where  is the Namespace Identifier, and  is the Namespace Specific String.

The leading  urn:  and Namespace Identifier are case insensitive. 

URN namespace registration process has been defined in RFC 3406. A namespace can

be registered for any existing identifier system as long as it conforms to the URN syntax.

NID  isbn  has been reserved for the ISBN system in RFC 3187. According to this RFC,

any URN based on ISBN has the following syntax: 

urn:isbn:

where the Namespace Specific String contains the ISBN in machine readable form. For

instance: 

urn:isbn:9780110002224

urn:isbn:9510184357

The 10 digit and 13 digit ISBN can share the same URN namespace since any application

capable of processing ISBNs in the future will be able to handle both 10 digit and 13 digit

ISBNs and tell them apart from the 978 or 979 prefix element. 

Extending ISBNs into URNs is technically easy, and there is no cost involved: URNs are

free. Resolution services, systems linking URNs to the identified resources, or

bibliographic records describing these resources may rely on any existing or future Internet

technology, since URNs are not technology dependent. Initially, URN resolution on the

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