The register covers the machinery that sits underneath publishing: the identifier systems that name works and their makers (ISBN, ISSN, DOI, ORCID), the copyright that attaches to a work the moment it is fixed, the licences — Creative Commons chief among them — by which rightsholders share work on their own terms, the craft of crediting sources properly, and the paper trail that proves where a work began.
It is written for anyone who makes, publishes, cites, or studies creative work: bloggers and independent writers, academic researchers, small publishers, journalists, and curious general readers who meet these systems without a roadmap. The voice is precise and technical-but-readable; every record aims to be evergreen.
§ 01How records are compiled
Each entry in the register is compiled from the public documentation of the systems it describes — the standards bodies, registries and offices named in the record itself — and filed under one of five sections with a fixed REC code. Records carry no dates; where a fact is jurisdiction-dependent, the record says so rather than generalising. Identifier formats and licence terms are quoted exactly.
§ 02The name
The domain descends from a mid-2000s meme — the “Internet Blog Serial Number,” a playful homage to the ISBN. The site keeps the name and treats the question underneath it seriously. The full story is filed as Origin: The Internet Blog Serial Number Project.
§ 03Corrections
A reference desk is only as good as its willingness to be corrected. If a record is wrong or has drifted out of date, write to the desk — see corrections & contact — and the record will be re-examined against its sources.
Filed as general information, in a precise reference voice — not legal advice.