The Universal Standard Book Number (USBN): a New Method for the Construction of Control Numbers for Bibliographical Records

A method is described for the construction of a control number for a bibliographical record which could provide a universal standard book number for that record. Since the new number relies on logical processes for its construction it could be obtained either manually or on the computer. The USBN consists of nine elements. The two most important of these are obtained from the title, and use a code for their construction which is based on the frequency of distribution of alphabetic letters.