Wikipedia:List of pages with Invalid ISBNs

New lists
see WikiProject Check Wikipedia

Problem pages
Pages which have resisted first attempts to resolve ISBN issues (for the full list, see Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs)

B

 * 1) Borders of the Roman Empire have left a query on author's talk page. Rich Farmbrough, 10:55 12  January 2007 (GMT).
 * If the author contact doesn't work out, FWIW, I'd suggest, in descending order of preference,
 * ISBN 8840207554
 * ISBN 8840293507
 * ISBN 8841588764 Keesiewonder 13:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I added what seems to be a newer edition of the same historical atlas from De Agostini (published in 2005, 'Atlante Storico' instead of 'Nuovo Atlante Storico'). Left a note on Talk to see if anyone knows of an English-language historical atlas that might have the same information. The newer edition can be found by Googling its ISBN but is not in Amazon or Worldcat. EdJohnston 03:45, 15 January 2007 (UTC)


 * We could copy the above note to the article's talk page and archive the notes on this page to the new archives you're thinking of building over at the catalog ISBN talk page ... If I remember correctly, there are some notes that I deleted from this page as well ... that could be retrieved if they're wanted ... from the article's history page. We're going to retire this page in any event, though, right? So I can remove it from my 'to do' list ... unless you convince me otherwise ;-) Keesiewonder talk 23:59, 23 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Updated the article by adding two English-language historical atlases. Removed the Italian atlas with a bad ISBN, leaving in place a later edition. Struck through this book's name on our list. Left a message on the article Talk, and we'll hope for the best. EdJohnston 20:28, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

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Gyeongju ISBN 89-953630-3-4 : 7 (Left note on one of article's author's talk pages, asking for help . As a backup idea, since this is a reference and not a citation, and the topic seems to essentially be tourism, maybe we can identify an alternate South Korean tourism book that we can locate with our typical resources.) Keesiewonder 12:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC) / Dialog with one of article's editors/authors is at my talk. Keesiewonder 10:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC) / Editor of the article has provided the "correct" ISBN that still is not one that shows up in catalogs. I lean toward deleting the ISBN ... but can also move on since the error tag is no longer present. Keesiewonder 02:24, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Any problems with striking Gyeongju from our list of invalid ISBNs? There now is an ISBN that does not fail the check digit test. However I don't think any of us have been able to find it in an online catalog or bookseller ... Keesiewonder 10:26, 18 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Go for it. Rich Farmbrough, 09:57 22 January 2007 (GMT).
 * Ok, thanks. We're done with this one, per above.
 * I updated Talk:Gyeongju to reflect the new ISBN found by User:Visviva on 15-Jan that is now valid. This is what everyone has just commented on, so it's not news, I just updated the records. Someday it would be interesting to know how he found it! I had previously gone into the web site of the Korean National Library, but their interface did not make any concessions to Anglophones!  EdJohnston 22:25, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Do we know for sure that the ISBN with a valid check digit was seen on a book or in a cataloging system. There's an unlikely possibility that the correct ISBN provided is simply the incorrect one, modified so the check digit checks out. We're done, though. Keesiewonder talk 23:56, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

H
Heather Taylor ISBN 1-9054551-17- : 9 (This particular ISBN has been previously fixed. 'She Never Talks of Strangers (2003), ISBN 0-904551-07-6' however is invalid. The same invalid ISBN is listed on Tall Lighthouse, as linked to from her own website. After having tried all permutations that isbn-check suggests, I'm passing on this one. --Limn 19:46, 12 January 2007 (UTC)) / Hmmmm. This link calls She Never Talks of Strangers a chapbook. I guess one question is do chapbooks get ISBNs? (If I had to say one way or the other off the top of my head, I'd say no ...) Maybe this is a good one to contact article authors on, or, cite the new full collection of poetry by Heather Taylor, Horizon & Back ISBN 1904551173. I feel doing the latter would be fine since She Never ... is merely in an Other Works section; we're not trying to retain an in-text citation, for example. Keesiewonder 16:45, 13 January 2007 (UTC) / I'd say that'd be fine. I can't imagine chapbooks getting assigned an ISBN either, not with the ISBN10 space assigned to smaller publishers being as precious as it is. H&B is already listed under Other Works, which in all probability also contains the verses from the chapbook. From the article's history the original author seems to be the subject in question, so I'll use her site's feedback form to inquire regarding this chapbook. Limn 17:10, 13 January 2007 (UTC) / Sounds great to me; I'm deferring to you to take out the bad ISBN until you get word back from the author or publisher. (I expect they'll tell you the correct ISBN is the one we have.) Keesiewonder 18:11, 13 January 2007 (UTC) / I've updated the article by taking out the ISBN for the time being, putting in a direct link to the publisher's order page instead. Should she reply with a correct ISBN, I'll put it back in (after validating it). My gut tells me her publisher used a pseudo-ISBN as a SKU, and there is no valid one... But we'll see. For now this is somewhat resolved, I think. If I don't hear back within a week or so, this entry can probably be removed. Limn 18:26, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Harsh Narain ISBN 8185990451 : X Remove reference to elusive ISBN; rely on OCLC for now. Keesiewonder 13:00, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Hattat Aziz Efendi ISBN 3757663034 : 9 (9-7576-6303-4 is the ISBN I've located through Google. Maybe someone wants to double-check before updating the article, as I'm not 100% about it. --Limn 19:34, 12 January 2007 (UTC)) (I think you have found the ISBN for a more recent edition of the intended book. If you want to go with the 1988 edition, I'd list only the OCLC; if you want to go with the 1999 edition, you could list the ISBN or both the ISBN and OCLC. Please see this link where you can see both editions at the bottom of the screen. Keesiewonder 12:51, 13 January 2007 (UTC))(Fixed. I've listed both the 1988 and 1999 editions, in a matter of speaking. That is I've linked to the 1999 edition by ISBN, your suggested OCLC code, and mentioned both 1988 and 1999 as copyright dates. In absence of a way to use the OCLC template to suggest checking the Editions tab when relevant, I think this should work. Limn 13:45, 13 January 2007 (UTC))
 * Herbert M. Shelton ISBN 1397807661 : 0 (Ekotkie fixed these. I've just reformatted some listings so the ISBN parsing will take place, and will reformat the entire list to use the cite template to increase consistency. Limn 14:10, 13 January 2007 (UTC))
 * I've received a reply from Heather Taylor, and the article's been updated to reflect the ISBN she's given me. Limn 09:08, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Excellent! Nice work! :-) Keesiewonder 11:08, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

L
Live at Leeds ISBN 088 112 618-2 : 7 - ISBN is for a double CD. EdJ removed the ISBN since CDs don't normally have ISBNs, and no data to show otherwise here. / struck out since it's "fixed" Keesiewonder 12:54, 13 January 2007 (UTC) Ludo Martens ISBN 2204198509 : 1 - OCLC found.
 * Oddly enough this is the ISBN the publishers give themselves. -- Limn 17:55, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I checked this book at Library of Congress. There is no ISBN shown there, nor at Worldcat. (Which is the trick Worldcat often uses when the ISBN is not valid). Anyone object if we remove the invalid ISBN? EdJohnston 18:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Not me. Listing a flawed ISBN is a disservice, if anything. Limn 18:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * OTOH, contributors with an ISBN from the book in their hand may feel obligated to add the ISBN to the article. Perhaps we could create a template  that results in .  Would that cause google searchs for the invalid ISBN to bring up the article? John Vandenberg 23:08, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure if Google consider html comments when satisfying search terms, but then I'm not sure why someone who has the book in question (or anyone else) would search for the wrong ISBN? ;) That said it may indeed be a good idea to change the template to hide the wrong ISBN within a comment, as per your suggestion. I think that if a book owner visits a page containing a invalid ISBN that's visible, they're less likely to pick up the book and correct it (thinking there's already one there), than if there were no visible ISBN to start with (giving them a reason to add one). Does that make sense at all? Point being that all ISBNs look valid at first glance. Either hide them in a comment, or make the template produce "The ISBN x-xxx-xxxx-xx given for this publication is invalid; if you know the correct one, please consider fixing it.", with 'consider fixing it' linked to this (or another) page explaining the use of the ISBN template. --Limn 12:58, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Short term, my preference is to remove the invalid ISBN from the page to keep SmackBot happy (and to get one more off our list!). The invalid ISBN can be stored in html within the article for editors, and it can be stored on the talk page. Medium to long term, it'd be nice to have a way to display invalid ISBNs in the article that have been thoroughly checked by "us" since the invalid number will be what most readers see on the book in their hand or a website selling the book with the invalid ISBN. Keesiewonder 18:09, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * For the long term: This would require formatting an invalid way so it's human-readable (and thereby accessible to Google), but acceptable/invisible to SmackBot. Presumably this will require some dialog with Smackbot's owner on what the best compromise would be that satisfies both the visibility, and Smackbot leaving the ISBN in question alone. If not, then once you got to the long term, Smackbot would start flagging those articles all over again. And if at all possible it'd be nice to format them in such a way it doesn't get autolinked to Special:Booksources, or people on auto-pilot will still want to use it to locate a copy. Limn 18:39, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, your point is a plug for why short term forever may be fine with me! (my POV, I admit.) I have yet to find a book that "deserves" listing that has an invalid ISBN and no OCLC. There also is no requirement to list a catalog number at all. For instance, when I write materials using APA format, my bibliography includes a full citation, but no catalog number. Keesiewonder 18:52, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
 * striking out since it has been fixed Keesiewonder 01:15, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

M
Moeraki ISBN 0 7315 0342 1 : 2 -- Message left for one of article's editors; ISBN is invalid as published. Keesiewonder 23:18, 19 January 2007 (UTC) / Article's editor wants the ISBN to remain and (along with me) hopes for a future template or SmackBot enhancement that allows us to display known invalid ISBNs and not flag them for further research. (Though invalid per the check digit, the number is often valid for locating the book in a library or at a book seller.) Will strike off our list here and I've put a note on the article's talk page. Plus, there is an html note in the article's code. Keesiewonder talk 00:27, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


 * 1) Mughatil ibn Bakri ISBN 5893287964  : 7
 * Please see my inquiry at . Keesiewonder talk 16:33, 20 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I am fine with another editor having deleted the above ISBN from the article. However, my hunch is they either did not see the article's talk page, or are choosing to ignore the fact that I have clearly, recently, indicated I am still working on this particular research project. It is a personal interest of mine, I realize, but I do my best to be very careful when editing articles that could cause heated feelings ... Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but, I am operating from my own life experience. I'm looking forward to a centralized place where we can discuss these things. And, I'm looking forward to a bit of buy-in and/or discussion on the proposed guidelines that EdJ has seen. Kind Regards, Keesiewonder talk 11:29, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * KW, please take a look at my proposed fix, which I put on the Talk page for this article . EdJohnston 05:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Excellent; what you've proposed is just fine! Strike it. Thanks! Guess all that's left on this page is the "B" above ... :-) --Keesiewonder talk 10:29, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

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Nathuram Godse ISBN 1375099796 : 5 -- I'd replace the ISBN with. Keesiewonder 02:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC) / Removed invalid ISBN and its error tag. Struck from our list. Keesiewonder 10:18, 18 January 2007 (UTC) Nuclear space ISBN 0122795041 : 0 -- replaced invalid ISBN with valid OCLC. Keesiewonder 02:21, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

S
Sanai ISBN 0-7007-0016-8 : 1 move invalid ISBN to html code and remove invalid ISBN tag; we have an OCLC link Keesiewonder 23:23, 18 January 2007 (UTC) Sebastian Piper ISBN 0-9535571-1-0 : 1 move invalid ISBN to html code and remove invalid ISBN tag; we have an OCLC link Keesiewonder 23:35, 18 January 2007 (UTC) Stephen Ferrando ISBN 81-85408-00-3 : 9 removed invalid ISBN and its tag in deference for OCLC Keesiewonder 23:42, 18 January 2007 (UTC) Sweet grass ISBN 0-9680029-0-3 : 0
 * Book not in LOC, Amazon, or Worldcat; not listed at publisher's site. I suggest removing the ISBN. EdJohnston 04:26, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I expect this is another instance of a published invalid ISBN. FWIW, I see it again at . Keesiewonder 02:22, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Removed ISBN per above. Keesiewonder 10:30, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

T
Theodor Brorsen ISBN 87-88558-05-0 : 3 fixed, Keesiewonder 01:53, 14 January 2007 (UTC) Tommy Jarrell ISBN 0933621099 : 4 -- I don't think it's a book; may I suggest we go with ? --Keesiewonder 02:03, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree. Removing the ISBN is justifiable. Curiously, Flower Films seems to have published several DVDs with ISBNs on them. Since these are not educational films for children under 16, this use seems to be not allowed by the international ISBN agency . I suppose it's not up to us to enforce their rules for them, but it does seem logical. EdJohnston 21:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC) Having an ISBN on a DVD is acceptable. Still no reason to keep an invalid ISBN for the Tommy Jarrell DVD, since the OCLC number works. EdJohnston 22:32, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Replaced ISBN with OCLC. Not sure what if anything to do about EdJ's findings ... Keesiewonder 11:25, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

W
William Hearst (politician) ISBN 0772010308 : 7 -- the invalid ISBN is listed on OCLC / My vote would be to eliminate the invalid ISBN since we have a nice OCLC tag (that includes the ISBN in its link should anyone want/need it). Keesiewonder 14:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC) / Moved invalid ISBN to html code and removed the error tag. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ISBN 0-06-0997405- : 0 -- an exact match for the publication year hasnt been identified / My Two Cents: ISBN 0-06-0974052 or this is probably what was intended; another edition that looks appropriate to me is ISBN 0192840258,  Keesiewonder 14:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, ISBN 0-06-0974052 does look like it. Thanks. John Vandenberg 14:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Fixed the above for the Mozart article; there's another, though, that I haven't looked into; it's not necessarily a "problem" one:
 * Hershel Jick: A Listener's Guide to Mozart's Music, Vantage, 1997 ISBN 0-553-12308-9

Keesiewonder 11:17, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Nevermind; all fixed now. Keesiewonder 11:21, 16 January 2007 (UTC)