Barcodes on books and magazines

Books

Book publishers have two options to uniquely identify their books:

  • Use the 'classic' GTIN-13 numbering structure. In this case, the publisher needs to become a member of GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg and request a GS1 company prefix. Each title of a publication gets a different GTIN-13.

  • Use the international ISBN numbering system. An ISBN number consists of the 'GS1-bookland' prefix 978 or 979, followed by 9 digits of the unique book number and the check digit. Request your ISBN number at www.boekenbank.be if you're located in Flanders or Brussels and at www.afnil.org if you're located in Wallonia. 
Tijdschriften
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Papers and magazines

Publishers of papers and magazines have two options to number:

  • Use the 'classic' GTIN-13 numbering structure. In this case, the publisher needs to become a member of GS1 Belgium & Luxembourg and request a GS1 company prefix. Each title of a publication gets a different GTIN-13. This means that the Monday edition of paper X will get a different number than the Tuesday edition of the same paper. 

  • Use the international ISSN numbering system. An ISSN number consists of the GS1 prefix 977, followed by 7 digits of the ISSN number, 2 reserve positions (for identification of for example special editions - in general these positions get the value 00), and the check digit. For more information, contact the Royal Library of Belgium at issn@kbr.be.

On books, papers and magazines, a second barcode or 'add-on code' can give extra information. On books, the display of extra information (like reprint) is optional. Papers and magazines always get an add-on code (2 or 5 digits) for the display of the serial number. 

2-digit serial numbers are assigned as follows:

  • Daily papers (or more in general, publications that appear multiple days a week): the publications of each seperate day of the week are seen as different trade items and need to be identified by a different GTIN. In the add-on code the number of the week is displayed.
  • Weekly publications: the number of the week (01-53)
  • Biweekly publications: the number of the week of the respective period (01-53)
  • Monthly publications: number of the month (01-12)
  • Bimonthly publications: number of the first month of the respective period (01-12)
  • Quarterly publications: number of the first month of the respective period (01-12)
  • Seasonal publications: First digit = last digit of the year; second digit = 1 spring, 2 summer, 3 autumn, 4 winter
  • Half-yearly publications: First digit = last digit of the year; second digit = the number of the first season in the respective period.
  • Yearly publications: First digit = last digit of the year; second digit = 5.
  • Specific publication periods: sequential numbering from 01 to 99.