Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I certainly apoligize if this has been covered before. It's also the first time I've had this issue.
I put the ISBN that is on the back cover and copyright page of a paperback book (Silhouette Intimate Moments #49-A Matter of Choice ISBN # 0-671-50295-6) but it comes up both on here and on Amazon as the ISBN for a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Super Mystery #28, Murder on the Fourth of July)

I'm honestly at a loss as to what to do. I did find the book on Amazon but it's ISBN 7410959444 is not what's on the book. Does this happen a lot?

Occasionally ISBNs get recycled. I think what we normally do is leave the ISBN section blank, but put in a librarian note explaining the situation.

Well, at least I know it happens. I did find the book on Goodreads after searching Amazon for it and located the other ISBN. Weird.

Way back when, Silhouette was owned by another company and their ISBNs started with 0671. When Harlequin bought Silhouette, the ISBNs changed to start with 0373.

But for whatever reason, the original owner of Sil. screwed up with their ISBNs and reused a bunch of the 0671 ones that they'd used for Sil. books. I've come across a handful in my time here at GR.

Anyway, this entry corresponds to the Nora Roberts book you are looking for. There's a note at the bottom of the description listing the ISBN.

Thanks. Yes, I came up with about five more last night that did that. Then I just started typing in the name of the book. Up until I joined GR I had no idea that ISBNs could be reused.

I think there were 4 or 5 Nora Roberts ones like that, if I remember right (and I made blank-ISBN entries for all those with notes in the description). And I've seen some for some other authors. Basically, if it is a Silhouette book with an 0671 ISBN, there's like a 50/50 chance an ISBN search will bring up the wrong book.