Question about new ISBN policy and ACEs

[Antonomasia]

With the new policy on ISBNs going to the newer book sharing the ISBN, does it mean that if you are dealing with ACEs, the newer one should always get the ISBN in its fields and the older one should become ACE?
And does that stay the same even if the older edition has a lot of adds on GR?

[lethe]

I'm afraid so :(

[Antonomasia]

Thanks!

It makes total sense when the old edition is from years before GR started and has fewer adds than the new one, but can see that they have to be consistent as more people can always add an edition, whereas the publication date is the same.

[rivka, Former Librarian Moderator]

The publication date would not be the same, as the pub date for the edition with the newer cover should be the date that cover became available (with that ISBN/ASIN), or the closest approximation possible.

[Antonomasia]

I meant that the publication date is theoretically a constant (yet in practice the publisher's site, and Amazon - and Amazon in different countries - can give different dates for the same ISBN + cover combo) whilst the number of users shelving a book obviously changes.

In the UK (and I noticed today one on amazon.fr with a French edition) it sometimes happens that a new cover to be listed with the same publication date as earlier uses of that ISBN.

It's been going on a long time - I remember it with some Penguin Classics and Modern Classics in the 80s and 90s - they had the same publication date on the details page as earlier editions which were published before that cover range or imprint name ever started.

They seem to be better at giving new publication dates for new covers of more recently published books.

New covers get listed in seasonal publishers' catalogues with the release date, but the websites quite often list the older edition as the official publication dates - and the catalogues often become harder to get hold of after they expire. (Depends on the publisher - but for a list I compile I couldn't even locate the Pan Macmillan Jan-June 2018 catalogue earlier this month, whereas some publishers make several years' worth of old ones available online.

[lethe]

Antonomasia wrote: "It's been going on a long time - I remember it with some Penguin Classics and Modern Classics in the 80s and 90s - they had the same publication date on the details page as earlier editions which were published before that cover range or imprint name ever started."

The only way you could tell which one was newer in those days was if they gave a printing number. Which is why I have pleaded that printing info may be added to the edition field even when there is a pub year available.

Because not only SPAs produce ACEs, the MMP publishers have always been at it as well. And they still get added to the database too.