When playing around with OCLC's XISBN service, I plugged in the isbn number for one of the "gone with the wind" books we have at our library - it returned something like 150 similar isbn numbers.  You could try doing that for a few items.

Just an idea ...

Andrew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Godmar Back
> Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 9:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [CODE4LIB] how to obtain a sampling of ISBNs
>
> Hi,
>
> for an investigation/study, I'm looking to obtain a representative
> sample set (say a few hundreds) of ISBNs. For instance, the sample
> could represent LoC's holdings (or some other acceptable/meaningful
> population in the library world).
>
> Does anybody have any pointers/ideas on how I might go about this?
>
> Thanks!
>
>  - Godmar