BookNet has been collecting/aggregating bibliographic information actively since January, 2010. It has been a tough, but interesting, slog as we build systems, recruit data providers, validate data and help publishers improve their metadata. We are not anywhere near done and we plan on continuing on all fronts, but I thought it might be a good time to share just where we are, and because we love numbers I’m going to share where we are by sharing the numbers:
- 61 accounts actively submitting data. Representing 100’s publishers.
- 375,556 records (read ISBNs) have been submitted and have passed schema validation.
- 20,000 records have been flagged as having a Canadian Contributor (ie. author, editor, illustrator, etc.)
- 115,148 records have an author biography.
- 236,286 records have some kind of descriptive text.
- 7032 records are for ebooks.
- On average each record contains 105 data elements.
The numbers are big, but they are not big enough. There is more out there that we don’t have, yet. So, we want you.
Participation in BiblioShare is free and not only is it free, but if you participate you will get stuff for free in return. BiblioShare will automatically check your data over and give you a detailed data quality report. The quality report will give you a good place to start when looking at making changes to your metadata. You can also use BiblioShare to distribute your ONIX files to data aggregators. And, ultimately, your data will be included in BiblioShare’s aggregated data feed.
BookNet will eventually be using the aggregated BiblioShare data in our own projects; SalesData, Prospector, PubFight and CataList. At the same time we will also be making the data available publically to anyone who wants it, but who doesn’t want to go through the pain of aggregating and processing of ONIX files themselves.
If you are not already submitting data get in touch with us (biblioshare@booknetcanada.ca) to get setup. Don’t know if you are submitting data? You should, but you can always ask us.
- Validate your data (Mac and Windows)!
- Include information that will make your titles ‘pop’ (ONIX for Marketing [pdf]).
- Flag your Canadian Contributors.
- Get your ebook metadata into a standard format…preferably ONIX 3.0.
