Hi,

What is the best way to link to a book?

The use of the urn:isbn URI (as explained below and in RFC-3187) would be the most semantic and what so ever way. However almost no one actually have a way of handling the URI on their desktop.

<uri> ::= "urn:isbn:" <isbn_number>

The URI would have to be replaced by an URL to Amazon or a similar book store. (As Amazon Standard Identification Numbers or ASIN are equal to ISBN numbers.) But that raizes the question of why not linking directly to Amazon instead.

The point is of course to provide the user with a useful way of knowing what resource I am refering to. Given books physical form, it is not possible to link directly to it. (As it is most often not available on the web.) Looking at Wikipedia's comperison of URN and URLs clerifies somewhat:

A URN is like a person's name, while a URL is like their street address. The URN defines something's identity, while the URL provides a method for finding something. Essentially, ‘what’ vs. ‘where’. (...) So URNs and URLs are often complementary; for example, you might discuss an RFC using both concepts: ‘you can find urn:ietf:rfc:3187 (URN) over at http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3187.html (URL).’ Wikipedia

So what is most useful to a user? An accurate description of the book (URN) or a location where it can be aquired--like an web books store like Amazon (URL). Hyper linking an URN will only provide the user with an non helpfull error message from their browser. But linking to a book store is not that useful either.

What do you think is the best way to link to a book?

(Thread originally posted as Linking to books using ISBN.)

I don't get how that's semantically correct at all.

<a href="http://www.book-store.com/book-title-in-this-format.html">

This would be the best way, since it's user-friendly and therefore semantically correct by extension (user can see the book title in the URL) and SEO-friendly (book title in the URL).

I updated my post abouv. It should be more clear.

If I planned to do this now and then, I would have a bibliography page. My link would go to a bookmarked item on that page where I would provide author name, title, ISBN number and a very brief summary. One could also include publication date and version information if desired. You could also do this a footnote on each page.

If I planned to do this a lot, I might set up a database for the same things.

Linking to Amazon seems wrong unless you are trying to sell the book.

The easy way out is just title and author; but, you said you wanted to “link to” it.

I hope I answered the question you asked.

If its a website your talking about the link to the uri, i.e. where to find it. Unfortunately the web doesn't have the underlying infrastructure ready yet to do what you want to do.

Once publishers and authors start describing their books in a way that they can be given a urn, then and only then would linking to it be worthwhile.

Jamie

What Jamie said...the data just isn't there yet on all ISBN numbers.

Originally Posted by Moldarin

Given books physical form, it is not possible to link directly to it.

This cracked me up.

You might try linking to a Google Book Search, if that's available for your book?

I agree linking to Amazon is wrong. If you're not getting paid for the sales you'll generate, then don't risk your unbiased reputation over this. Or, name the book and then link to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a few other competitors to show neutrality.

I could make money on it via the Amazon Associate program. But my point is to link to/refer to the book in a neutral way. I guess juts providing the title and ISBN; without linking anywhere is the best option.

Be aware that if your visitors have a google toolbar with the "autolink" feature active (the default), ISBN numbers will become a link to Amazon anyway.

I did not know the Google-thingy had such a feature!

Firefox 3 will do some trickery with ISBN numbers. But I am not sure exactly what.