It’s a vexing question. I like to explain ONIX for Books by separating out the standard (what you track as metadata) from the technical side (XML, which can be thankfully ignored in this post). ONIX as a standard is a way for two companies to exchange information about books without ambiguity by using published definitions. Using the standard involves those companies agreeing between them on what level of detail they need from the ONIX data fields to support their systems and sales.
Out with the Old Subject Codes and In with the New
Thema: A New International Classification Scheme for Books
What is Thema?
Thema is a new international book classification scheme, based on the BIC, and IBIC (the internationalized version of BIC), Subject Classification. IBIC will become Thema.
“Intended for use by all book industry stakeholders, Thema is a flexible standard that allows each market to retain its unique cultural voice while still presenting a unified hierarchy that rationalizes book categorization. The goal of Thema is to reduce confusion about subject codes for both upstream and downstream trading partners, in order to facilitate the sale of more books.”
—From the Thema web site (www.panthema.org)
Data (Big and Meta) at MIP
Yesterday, a few of us attended BISG’s Making Information Pay 2012, a half-day conference in New York with a tightly focused program packed with excellent speakers. This year, MIP turned its attention to data, big and meta. Naturally, this piqued our curiosity. Here’s a recap.
BISAC Codes: Aboriginal Fiction
Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) Subject Headings are the North American standard for classifying subject information for your books. Your books + BISAC subjects codes = glorious discoverability. This evolving standard is based on the work done by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Subject Codes Committee of which BNC is a member. And we represent you so there’s room for your involvement.
The purpose of my post today is to give you some insight on how a Subject Heading is created and how you can help us create one.
Best Practices for Assigning ISBNs to Digital Books
The 2011 BISAC Subject Codes
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has released the annual update of BISAC Subject Codes. The BISG committee works hard to make sure the subjects keep up with the changing publishing market, adding and removing codes and refining code definitions. While most codes remain the same year-to-year, publishers should review the changes and update their coding for all active titles (front and backlist) if it’s changed.
We look at the subject areas with the most changes, and what you need to know about the BISAC Subject Codes update.
One for All? Should Different Markets or Retailers Get Different ONIX Files?
A lot of software vendors and some firms go to great lengths to prepare ONIX files tailored to markets, creating separate files by certification standards for BISG, BookNet, and BIC. And some ONIX senders tailor their output based on what a retailer requests.
At BookNet Canada, we think that so long as the ONIX file is a properly prepared XML document it shouldn’t matter. Here’s why.
Getting Data Dropped: Support and Update Your Records
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.
