International ISBN Agency

The International ISBN Agency is appointed by ISO as the registration authority for the ISBN system.

The main functions of the International ISBN Agency are:

  • To promote, coordinate and supervise the world-wide use of the ISBN system 
  • To approve the definition and structure of group agencies 
  • To allocate group identifiers to group agencies 
  • To advise on the establishment and functioning of group agencies 
  • To advise group agencies on the allocation of international publisher identifiers 
  • To publish the assigned group numbers and publishers' prefixes