Macrosoft, a leading-edge software design and development organization, today announced that the company has joined the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and its ISBN-13 Task Force formed by the trade association to coordinate the transition to the 13-digit International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) from today's 10-digit standard.

"This enormously complex transition has far reaching implications for the computer systems of any organization connected with the publishing industry," said Dr. Edward Sable, President of Macrosoft. "With longstanding expertise in analyzing systems, problems, cleaning programs to correct nonconformity, and testing systems and integration to ensure complete compliance throughout information technology infrastructures, Macrosoft is uniquely positioned to support this need for publishers, printers, and retailers."

Beginning January 2007, when the ISBN agency is to begin issuing the 13-digit ISBNs, publishers must assign only 13-digit ISBNs to their books, and retailers must accept 13-digit ISBNs in their sales systems. The ISBN uniquely designates books and book-like products published internationally in order to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, wholesalers and distributors. The change is needed in order to expand the numbering capacity of the ISBN system and alleviate numbering shortages around the globe.

The BISG ISBN-13 Task Force maintains authoritative information and recommends guidelines for ISBN-13 implementation. In addition to meeting the ISBN agency's new standard, the change to 13 digits will also allow the book industry to fully align the numbering system for books with the global EAN.UCC identification system that is widely used to identify most other consumer goods worldwide.

In addition to Macrosoft the ISBN-13 Task Force includes leading commercial and academic publishers, the American Association of Publishers, the American Booksellers Association, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Government Printing Office, and other publishing industry organizations.