The Book Industry Study Group and the IDPF are putting on a free webinar explaining ONIX 3.0 and metadata for eBooks on Wednesday, October 7th at 11:00 EST.
EPUB Is Growing Up
It was nearly two years ago that the IDPF released version 1 of the EPUB suite of standards and since that time the race to digital has been going full steam ahead and a lot has been learned by people and organizations who have implemented EPUB support in the real world. With that in mind the IDPF has struck up a working group for the next release of the EPUB standard. Now granted a suite of standards isn’t as sexy as releasing a new iphone app or a dedicated ereader or even debating what ebooks should cost, nevertheless standards are what drive the internet and standards will drive digital publishing and electronic reading.
Future of the ISBN: Free Webcast from BISG
ONIX 3.0: Free Web Seminars from BISG and EDItEUR
Going to Frankfurt? Like Supply Chain?
Streamlining Metadata Workflow Paper
The NISO and OCLC have published a white paper on Streamlining Metadata Workflow [pdf] that looks very interesting. I haven’t had the opportunity to wade through all 22 pages yet (fun for the weekend), but it looks interesting and worth the effort.
979 ISBNs Spotted in the Wilds of France!
We’ve been beating the 979 drum for a while, but it’s finally here. And they aren’t being issued somewhere out-of-the-way like Burkina Faso, but in EU/decadent West/producing-tons-of-books *France*! And that means anyone with French books passing through their supply chains has finally reached their day of identifier reckoning.
ISBN Missing You for So Long
Just saying ‘ISBN’ creates an instant bond with any fellow book trade devotees in the vicinity. Whether you favour the spell out (i.s.B.n., generally with an element of slur) or the phonetic slide (IsBin), publishers, booksellers and librarians alike perk up their ears at the mention of this secret password, this shared standard, this format filer.
When does a helping hand, like the ISBN has been for the printed book, become a major pain in the behind?
Stimulating E-Books: Part Two
Like identical twins, just because e-books and print books are born from the same material does not mean they behave or even look like carbon copies. Finding ways to bring out the different but equal potential in each will allow for well-adjusted creations who don’t need literary therapy at a later date.
From the IDPF 2009 Digital Book Summit, three major considerations came to light.
A New Acronym = A New Standard!
An interesting alliance has opened up between Stanza, Adobe, the Internet Archive and O’Reilly Media. Perhaps alliance is putting it too strongly, but these are the key players who are pushing a new initiative to develop a standard to enable the widespread discovery, description and access of book and other published material on the open web.
