The Special Collections Unit in UP’s Department of Library Services is issuing ISBNs and developing the TUK Collection.

The TUK, or UP Publications, Collection forms part of the Department of Library Services’ (DLS) Special Collections and is comprised of the published research output of the University of Pretoria (UP). The Special Collections Unit at Merensky 2 Library is mandated to keep preservation copies of all University publications, according to a 1979 Senate decision. This includes any work authored, co-authored or edited by a UP member of staff, any work with a chapter authored by a member of staff, or any work published by a University department or organisation. As such, at least one copy of these publications should in principle be donated to the TUK Collection; however, Special Collections has identified gaps in the collection and has made purchases accordingly.

The unit also issues international standard book numbers (ISBNs) for UP publications; this function works in tandem with the development of the TUK Collection, as Special Collections is a “place of legal deposit” for UP publications. It cannot assign ISBNs to works emanating from other publishers because the first nine digits in the ISBN are a designation of the name of the issuing body, in this case, the University of Pretoria. For all non-UP publications, the National Library of South Africa will need to be contacted.

For ease of reference, the unit has developed a workflow that describes the process for the issuing of ISBNs, which can be downloaded from https://library.up.ac.za/special/isbn.

For any ISBN-related queries, please contact Ms Sonto Mabena at [email protected]