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It's the UCC (unique country code) for "Bookland".
The barcode on a book is a 13-digit EAN (European article number) which requires a country code. 978 was the UCC allocated to the International ISBN Agency so they could extend their 10 digit ISBN to 13 digits (therefore making the ISBN-13 and EAN identical) at the same time as extending the ISBN number space (by allowing the use of 979 and further UCCs).
hamrack-
Aha, thanks. That led me to this which makes it clear now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GS1_country_codes
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Pishy EU nonsense!
When we've left, we'll start again with the King James Bible as book No.1.
aggi
mespilus
Why do ISBN 13s start with 978 (or 979)? How were these three numbers chosen?