That's what I thought!

I was right. When I went to my son's freshman orientation, I asked one of the staff whether the textbooks would be listed on the student's class schedule. The answer was no, which is what I was expecting. I asked if there was any way to procure the ISBNs for the textbooks prior to move in day. Again, the answer was no. I said something about wanting to get the ISBNs earlier in order to help my son order the textbooks online for a much reduced cost. There was an awkward silence and then the speaker said that parents would need to be very careful if they were going to order the textbooks anyplace other than the campus bookstore with the ISBNs because it was very easy to get the wrong edition.

WRONG!
Just as I thought, I found this info on Bowker's web site
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/index.asp

This characteristic of the publishing industry, that each new title, new edition, new binding, is treated as a separate new product is one of the major obstacles to unique and meaningful product data transmission within the publishing industry. It is also one of the major reasons that we must set up standards such as the ISBN and the SAN for our systems and comply with them.

What is the purpose of an ISBN?

The purpose of the ISBN is to establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and is unique to that edition, allowing for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.

I'm guessing that the campus bookstores make most of their profit from incoming freshmen. It doesn't take students long to get wise to the campus bookstore racket! They definitely don't make it easy on you. The only way to get the ISBNs is to actually go to your students campus bookstore with their class schedule in hand. Even before the textbooks actually arrive there will be sticker posted for each class with the title, edition and the ISBN ( 10 digits or 13). With that number and the title and edition you can save as much as half the campus bookstore price per text. It definitely will be worth a scooter ride down to Indy this Friday, partially as a labor of love for my son, and partly for a fun ride to Indy. Wheeeeeee