BNC BiblioShare has been getting queries from publishers asking why after dropping a record from their ONIX feed it hasn’t disappeared from The 49th Shelf. BiblioShare supplies data to a lot more firms than The 49th Shelf and that list is growing, but we like that you’re paying attention and finding problems in 49thShelf.com. Here’s an explanation straight from your ONIX feed about what’s happening.
Tools of Change 2011: Overall Thoughts, Exciting New Projects, and Quotable Quotations
Last week I attended the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing 2011 conference .
This was my first year attending TOC and I loved it. If you’ve never been to TOC, it’s a whirlwind of a conference: workshops, keynotes, sessions, exhibitors, roundtable sessions, a startup showcase, and social events. I don’t think I blinked for three days, but it was a fantastic experience and I recommend it to any of you who can make it in future years.
There were also two projects that stood out for me. Here are the basics in their own words.
EPUB 3.0 Draft Specification Published
Today the IDPF made available the first public draft of the EPUB 3.0 specification (press release).
The IDPF has posted a good overview document to 3.0 that is worth spending a little time with. But here is a brief summary of some of the proposed new ‘features’, or changes, in EPUB 3.0.
Stop Being an Enabler: BISG E-Book ISBN Study Findings
Tom and I called in to the BISG meeting on Thursday (January 13, 2011) where the findings of the Identification of eBooks Research Project [pdf - slides] were revealed and discussed.
The results of this research are pretty distressing for someone who works with standards every day, but also (sadly) not at all surprising. Here are the key findings from the report…
The New Subject Codes: Use Them
Best Practices for E-Books in ONIX
What are the general guidelines for producing “good” ONIX support for e-books? Quality data exchange requires two things: clarity about how Product Identifiers are being used and the use of the ONIX 3.0 standard. Given that we are lacking both of these things, the answer to how to make a “good” e-book is a bit ambiguous. Use the following as a starting point, ask questions of your trading partners, and—please!—comment on this post.
ONIX Is Easy
At BookNet, we sometimes find ourselves trying to defend ONIX . People are often asking, “Why can’t it be easy?” But it is. After the last time I heard this I thought that a review of why ONIX is easy was due.
Making Books Accessible = Finding New Readers
BNC 101: ISTCs
An ISTC is a new way of linking different formats of the same book. Unlike an ISBN, it is tied to the book and only the book, not the publisher. A simple example is using an ISTC to link the hardcover, trade paper, mass market, and epub versions of a title. Even though each format would have a different ISBN, they would share a single ISTC.
But why is it important? We’ll tell you.
BNC 101: What Is ONIX?
ONIX for Books is an international standard for exchanging important information about books and related products.Here we take you through the basics: what you need to know about ONIX and how to use it.
