In 1965, British book retailer W.H. Smith required a standard book numbering system as they planned to move their inventory to a computerized warehouse. The Standard Book Numbering (SBN) system was implemented in Great Britain in 1967.
A meeting was held in 1968 to discuss adaptation of Britain's SBN system for international use. Representatives from seven nations, including the United States, were involved in the meetings, and the ISBN system was internationally adopted in 1970.
Although ISBNs were originally intended to identify books, changes have been made to the standard as new technologies developed. ISBNs are now also used to identify book-like material, including VHS tapes, DVDs and e-books.
The 10-digit ISBN is broken into four sections to identify the publishing country, publisher name, book title and a check digit for validation.
ISBNs were expanded to include 13 digits in 2007. The new format contains a three-digit prefix before the original four identifying sections of the number.