Canadian <Metadata> Forum

Standards in the
Book Industry Supply Chain
An international overview

Doug Minett
The Bookshelf, Guelph /
Canadian Book Industry Systems Advisory Committee (CBISAC)

Available also in [PDF 127 KB]

Book Trading Relationships

Forces shaping supply chain standards development

The commercial imperative:

• Who?
• What?
• How?

Who? The influential players

• Booksellers
  • Chain(s)
  • Internet
  • Independents&
• Publishers
• Distributors Wholesalers
• Independent data service providers
• Trade associations

Who? Canada (English)

• Booksellers
  • Indigo, Amazon.ca, independents, college
• Publishers
• Distributors & Wholesalers
  • Big 5
• Independent data service providers
  • R.R. Bowker, Titlewave, PubStock
• Trade Associations
  • ACP (Association of Canadian Publishers)
  • CPC (Canadian Publishers Council)
  • CBA (Canadian Booksellers Association)
  • CBWA (Canadian Book Wholesalers Association)

Who? Canada (French)

• Booksellers
  • Renault-Bray, Archambault, independents, college
• Publishers
• Distributors & Wholesalers
  • Big 5?
• Independent data service providers
  • BTLF (La Banque de titres de langue française), Electre
• Trade Associations
  • ALQ (l'Association des libraires du Québec)
  • ANEL (l'Association nationale des éditeurs de livres)
  • ADELF (l'Association des distributeurs exclusifs de livres en langue française)

Who? United States

• Booksellers
  • Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon.com, independents, college
• Publishers
• Distributors & Wholesalers
  • Baker & Taylor, Ingram
• Independent data service providers
  • R.R. Bowker, Pubnet/PubEasy, Ingram
• Trade Associations
  • AAP (Association of American Publishers)
  • ABA (American Booksellers Association)
  • NACS (National Association of College Stores)

Who? United Kingdom

• Booksellers
  • Waterstones, W.H. Smith, Amazon.co.uk, independents, college
• Publishers
• Distributors & Wholesalers
  • Gardners
• Independent data service providers
  • Neilsen BookData/BookScan/First Edition, PubEasy
• Trade Associations
  • PA (Publishers Association)
  • BA (Booksellers Association)
• Batch.co.uk (payables & receivables management)

What? The tasks

• Descriptive metadata
  • Identifiers: ISBN, ISTC, Interparty, subject codes
  • Basic metadata (title, author,..)
  • Enhanced metadata: covers, TOC, reviews,..
• Packaging and trading metadata
  • Identifiers: EAN13, UPC, GTIN
  • Bar code standardization
• Availability metadata
• Commercial metadata
  • Ecommerce: digital rights, manufacturing, ordering, ..
  • Point of sales: retail, eBook

How? Standards organizations (1)

Canada (English)

• Booknet Canada (CBISAC - Canadian Book Industry Advisory Committee)
  • DCH - Department of Canadian Heritage
  • Canadian focus (North American English)

Canada (French)

• BTLF (La Banque de titres de langue française)
  • DCH - Department of Canadian Heritage
  • SODEC - Société de développement des entreprises culturelles

How? Standards organizations (2)

United States

• BISG - Book Industry Study Group (BISAC - Book Industry Standards & Communications)
  • North American (English) focus
  • Some international representation

United Kingdom

• EDItEUR (BIC - Book Industry Communication)
  • British focus
  • Considerable international representation - for ONIX

How? Specific initiatives (1)

Descriptive metadata

• BISAC Title Status (obsolete - but active)
• BISAC X12 832 (obsolete - but active)
• EDItEUR Edifact PRICAT (obsolete)
• Other (... but active)
• ONIX v2.1
  • Recent improvements: normalization, code tables
  • BISAC Identification
  • BISAC Metadata Codes & Values
  • BISAC Metadata Content & Structure

How? Specific initiatives (2)

Descriptive metadata (identifiers)

• ISBN, ISTC, Interparty, DOI
  • BISAC Metadata Content & Structure
  • EDItEUR
• Retail subject codes
  • BISAC Metadata Codes & Values
  • BIC

What? Specific initiatives (3)

Packaging and trading metadata

• Book Identifiers & Packaging
  • BISAC MRC - Machine Readable Coding
• Supply chain trading identifiers
  • BISAC MRC - Machine Readable Coding
• Digital Rights Management
  • BISAC DRM - Digital Rights Management

Availability metadata

What? Specific initiatives (4)

Commercial metadata

• BISAC/Ingram fixed length PO/POA/Invoice (obsolete - but active)
• BIC Tradacoms (obsolete - but active)
• BISAC X12 850/855/810/856/857/..
  • BISAC TAG -Technical Advisory Committee
• EDItEUR Edifact PO/POA/Dispatch
• EDItx XML PO, ASN, Digital Sales, ..
  • BISAC Internet Commerce
  • BISAC Digital Sales Reporting
  • BISAC Publisher/Manufacturer

Booknet Canada

Governance:

• ACP - Association of Canadian Publishers
• CPC - Canadian Publishers Council
• CBA - Canadian Booksellers Association
• CBWA - Canadian Book Wholesalers Association
• DCH - Department of Canadian Heritage

Mandate:

• Ecommerce facilitator
• Bibliographic metadata quality facilitator
• Point of Sales data tracking facilitator
• Standards for all of the above

Some useful links

• Booknet Canada (website in development)
• BTLF www.btlf.qc.ca
• BISG www.bisg.org
• BISAC www.bisg.org/bisac
• BIC www.bic.org.uk
• EDItEUR www.editeur.org
• ISBN/ISTC www.lac-bac.gc.ca/iso/tc46sc9