Search Fields
To search the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory, choose one of the five search fields from the menu: Publisher Keyword, Publisher Name, City, Province or
ISBN.
1. Searching by PUBLISHER KEYWORD
Choose PUBLISHER KEYWORD when you do not know exactly how a publisher's name is recorded in the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory, and enter your search term.
This type of search is especially useful for government publishers. Most government publishers included in the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory are entered directly under their own name, such as "Saskatchewan Research Council." However, some subordinate government agencies are entered under the name of their jurisdiction. In these cases the jurisdiction appears 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
Some subordinate agencies are entered directly under their own name, however, if that name already includes the jurisdiction.
Example:
City of Vancouver Archives
2. Searching by PUBLISHER NAME
Choose PUBLISHER NAME if you are certain of the publisher's name, or part of the name, and enter your search term.
The system searches all publisher names in the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory database, and retrieves all terms that match the search request in order from left to right. 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 by CITY
Choose CITY when you are certain of the publisher's city, and enter your search term.
The system searches all cities in the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory database, and retrieves all publishers located in the city that matches the search request.
4. Searching by PROVINCE
To search by PROVINCE, select from the drop-down list of provinces.
The system searches all publishers located in the selected province.
5. Searching by
ISBN PREFIX(ES)
Choose
ISBN when you know the
ISBN for a Canadian publication and want to find the publisher's name and address. You may enter the
ISBN with or without hyphens or spaces.
The system extracts the publisher prefix element from the full
ISBN and searches the database for the publisher associated with that
ISBN publisher prefix.
For example, a search request using an
ISBN such 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" or "1" are Canadian; these prefixes are also used by
ISBN agencies in the United States and the 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 that has not yet been incorporated into the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory database.
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 entered 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.
Accents
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.
Search Results
The search results are displayed in a table, the length of which depends on the number of search results and the number of records you selected to be displayed per page. Unless you specify otherwise, the system displays a maximum of 10 publisher records per page in the search results. You may increase or decrease this limit by selecting from the drop-down list.
Links within the Publisher Record
Links to the Publisher's Website
The publisher record may also include a URL (Internet address), which you can select to go directly to the publisher's website (for example, "website: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca"). Please note that if the publisher's URL changes and Library and Archives Canada is not notified, the link may be outdated.
To return to the
Canadian
ISBN Publishers' Directory, use your Web browser's "Back" button.
Quebec
ISBN Data
ISBN assignments for many French-language publishers can be found in the
Bottin des éditeurs francophones canadiens (French only).
For more information, please contact:
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
2275 Holt Street
Montréal, QC H2G 3H1
CANADA
Telephone (in Montréal): 514-873-1101, ext. 3785
or 1-800-363-9028, ext. 3785 (Toll free in Quebec)
Fax: 514-873-4310
Email:
isbn@bnquebec.ca
Further Information
For more information about
ISBNs, please contact:
Canadian ISBN Agency
Library and Archives Canada
550 De la Cité Boulevard
Gatineau, Quebec J8T 0A7
CANADA
Telephone: 819-994-6872
Library and Archives Canada: 1-866-578-7777 (select 1+7+3) (Toll free in Canada and the US)
Fax: 819-934-7535
Email:
BAC.ISBN.LAC@canada.ca