Hello I am a College student and one of the books my professor has on a course list has an ISBN number of 0-8050-8838-5 It is for a book called Nickel and Dimed. I found the same book but it has a diffrent ISBN number of 0-8050-6389-7. The books info both look the same just printing year is diffrent.
What I need to know is what is the diffrences in ISBN numbers?

Different publication dates.  The second number is about 6 years older.  However, from reading the Amazon "blurb" it doesn't look like a book that will be revised.  It's not a "textbook" per se.  Can you email your professor to see if there is a preference inthe publication date...I can't see why there would be.

I just looked the book up, since it sounded interesting and they do have the 2008 in the system.  

I sent an email today after I posted this question. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I am still waiting for a reply from the teacher. When I requested the book there wasn't the 2008 in the system guess I should have waited a few days.

Tiffany   My copy of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, has the ISBN 0-8050-6389-7   It's a paperback edition "A METROPOLITAN/OWL BOOK, publisher Henry Holt and Company, New York.  This book was first published in hardcover in 2001 by Metropolitan Books.

It's my impression that the hardcover and the paperback edition of a book will carry differing ISBNs,

After this book of undercover reporting came out, it became a New Yoirk Times best-seller and "Notable Book of the Year."   And the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis-Saint Paul adapted it into a very effective piece of theater.

There really shouldn't be any difference between the books, the only problem you might have is that the page numbers assigned might differ from those in your book a bit, which often happens with differing isbns, but the content shouldn't be different. If one happens to be a critical edition (which I doubt) you can always borrow the other copy from a classmate some night and read it. It is a great book. I read it for a college lit course.