[3] Bowker is headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey, with additional operational offices in England and Australia.

[4] The company was founded in New York City by Frederick Leypoldt, a German immigrant who worked as a bookseller and recognized the need for good bibliographic information to make the book business more efficient.

Leypoldt and Bowker also founded two influential standard book-industry references: Literary Marketplace and Ulrich's Periodicals Directory.

[5] In 1967, the Xerox Corporation acquired the R. R. Bowker company, and then, in 1985, sold it to Reed International (now RELX Group).

[13][14] As of 2016[update], Bowker USA charges $125 for one ISBN[15] and offers substantial[weasel words] discounts on volume purchases.