About these tools
Books come with more numbers than people notice: the ISBN above the barcode, a second ISBN on the copyright page, a call number on the library spine, a page count that decides whether it fits in a weekend. These tools handle those numbers so you can get back to the reading.
They are built for home libraries, collectors, classroom libraries, book clubs and anyone selling used books: the people who handle a lot of books and want the facts about each one quickly.
Which tool for which task
You have a book in your hand and want its details. Use the ISBN Lookup. Type the number from the back cover and get the title, author, publisher, publication date, page count, cover, subjects and the Library of Congress or Dewey call number when Open Library has one. Good for checking an edition before buying second-hand, or filling in a reading log without typing titles.
You have a list of ISBNs and need them clean. Use the ISBN Converter & Validator. Paste one ISBN or hundreds, and it flags the ones with a wrong check digit, converts ISBN-10s to ISBN-13s (and back where possible), and exports the result as CSV. Useful when a spreadsheet mixes both formats, or a supplier list has typos.
You want to know how long a book will take. Use the Reading Speed Calculator. Time yourself on a short passage to get your words per minute, then enter any book's page count to see the hours, and set minutes a day to get a finish date. Handy for book-club schedules and yearly reading goals.
You want labels on the spines. Use the Book Spine Label Maker. Paste your titles and authors, pick Avery 5160, 5167 or 6873, and print call number labels that line up on the sheet. If you run checkout for a whole classroom or congregation library, Libafile keeps track of who has which book.
You want to catalogue the whole shelf. At that point, typing numbers one at a time is the slow way. Codexia reads the barcode with your phone and builds the catalogue as you scan.
One number, three jobs: ISBNs and barcodes
An ISBN identifies one edition of one book. The hardback, the paperback and the audiobook of the same title each get their own, which is why the copyright page often lists several. Since 2007 every ISBN has 13 digits; books printed before then usually show the older 10-digit form as well.
The last digit is a check digit, calculated from the others. It catches almost every single-digit typo and most swapped pairs, which is how the converter can tell you a number is wrong before you waste a search on it.
The barcode on the back cover is the same ISBN-13 drawn as an EAN-13 barcode, the format used on groceries. That is why a phone camera or a cheap handheld scanner can read a book's identity in a fraction of a second, and why scanning beats typing once you have more than a few books.
A 979 prefix is still a valid ISBN-13. It was opened up when the 978 range started to fill, and 979 numbers have no ISBN-10 equivalent.
Privacy
The ISBN Converter and the Reading Speed Calculator run entirely in your browser: nothing you type leaves the page. The ISBN Lookup has to ask a catalogue, so it sends the ISBN, and only the ISBN, to Open Library, a free catalogue run by the Internet Archive, and says so on the page. There are no accounts, nothing is stored, and there are no ad trackers.
FAQ
What is the difference between ISBN-10 and ISBN-13?
They identify the same book. ISBN-10 was the standard until 2007, when the system moved to 13 digits so ISBNs would match the EAN-13 barcodes used in retail and leave room for more numbers. An ISBN-10 becomes an ISBN-13 by adding 978 to the front and recalculating the last digit.
How do I find a book by its ISBN?
Type the number into the ISBN Lookup. It checks the ISBN, then fetches the title, author, publisher, page count and cover from Open Library. The ISBN is usually printed above the barcode on the back cover and on the copyright page.
Is the barcode on a book the same as its ISBN?
On almost every book printed since the 1970s, yes. The main barcode on the back cover is an EAN-13 that encodes the ISBN-13 printed above it. A smaller barcode beside it, if there is one, usually carries the price.
How fast does the average adult read?
Large reviews of reading research put typical silent reading of English at roughly 200 to 300 words per minute, with non-fiction a little slower than fiction. The Reading Speed Calculator measures your own speed with a short passage and turns it into a time to finish any book.
Do these tools send my data anywhere?
The ISBN Converter and the Reading Speed Calculator run entirely in your browser and send nothing. The ISBN Lookup sends the ISBN you type to Open Library to fetch the book's record, and says so on the page. Nothing is stored and there are no accounts.
How do I catalogue a whole home library?
Looking books up one at a time works for a handful. For a full collection, Codexia, AnchorKite's Android app, scans each book's barcode with the phone camera or a Bluetooth scanner, fills in the details from Open Library, and keeps a searchable catalogue on your phone.
Coming next for books
- ISBN citation generator: an ISBN in, an APA, MLA or Chicago reference out.
- ISBN barcode generator: draw the EAN-13 barcode for any ISBN, as SVG or PNG.
- Bookmark maker: turn a photo into printable bookmarks.
- Reading log and book-club schedule: printable sheets for a year of reading or a club's next book.
Have a request? Tell us what you'd use. The full AnchorKite tools directory has more, including teacher tools and writing tools.