International Standard Serial Number

A few weeks ago, I went to the national library at kalaw in Manila. I went there to get a ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for my Kalayaan comics. It is a serial number that is quired by the leading book store in the Philippines. So if you ever want to get you comics to be sold there. Your comic book must have it. It will only cost you P120 and alot of sweat from going back and forth from the 6th floor office to the ground floor cashiers desk. Even with an elevator it is still tiring but very much worth it.

They will ask you to give them a sample of your comics. Each title will cost you P120. In my case, even though I have released many issues, I only paid P120.

After having the ISSN with me. I wanted to find out more about this serial number. I know that the book store uses it as a serial number. But I just know that there is more too it than meets the eye. So I went on the net and found this cool site on wikipedia. In this site, there was a code, a mathematical formula for the ISSN. The geek and mathematician in me suddenly kicks in.

Kalayaan ISSN : 2012-2772

mulitpied by 8,7,6,5,4,3,2 espectively

(take note... the last digit are not added on the computation since it is the check digit)

= 2*8 + 0*7 + 1*6 + 2*5 + 2*4 + 7*3 + 7*2
= 16 + 6 + 10 +8 + 21 + 14
= 75

75 mod 11 = 9

11 - 9 = 2

And viola 2 is the check digit(the last digit of my ISSN).... Correct... wow ...now thats cool.