The Canadian Bibliographic Standard is a set of standards developed by BookNet Canada and the Canadian book industry for the minimum collection and dissemination of bibliographic data.
The Canadian Bibliographic Standard contains essential information on bibliographic data elements and clarifications to help you understand what's required when.
/wiki/spaces/UserDocs/pages/1383340 is a supplemental document to the Canadian Bibliographic Standard that focuses on expanding the use of your bibliographic data files to include marketing and promotional information.
Best Practices and BISG
BNC's sister organization in the United States is the Book Industry Study Group (BISG). Both organizations actively try to coordinate their certification and standards programs with each other. This coordination has led to the wide US acceptance of BNC's Bronze Template spreadsheet as a basis for data exchange.
The BISG, in conjunction with BookNet Canada, created a very useful document, most recently revised in May 2015 called Best Practices for Product Metadata. Within this guide, you'll find detailed guidelines for each data element in the Canadian Bibliographic Standard.
International Best Practices at EDItEUR
EDItEUR is the organizing body behind the ONIX standard and has an excellent best practices document intended to support international exchange. While it is specific to ONIX 3.0, mosts sections can be easily applied to ONIX 2.1.
You can find code lists and best practice guidelines on the EDItEUR website. Just go to Standards, then Release 3.0 Downloads.
Canadian Bibliographic Standard Levels
The Canadian Bibliographic Standard has three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. These levels correspond to the three Certification levels that can be attained.
 | Bronze contains the minimum mandatory data required to trade in the supply chain to ensure that titles are listed accurately by key bibliographic databases like Indigo, BookManager and Bowker Books-in-Print. Bronze level files are sent using the BNC Bronze Template. |
 | Silver contains the same data elements found at the Bronze level, but is transmitted through ONIX 2.1. Data elements included in the Silver level of the standard represent a minimum amount of bibliographic data publishers and distributors need to store and transfer when trading in ONIX. Silver level files can be created by using the BNC ONIX Converter to convert the Bronze Template to an ONIX file. |
 | Gold contains all Silver requirements plus additional marketing information such as cover image, set and edition details, number of pages and reviews or descriptive text. Gold level files can be created by using the BNC ONIX Converter to convert the Bronze Template to an ONIX file. |
Please email biblio@booknetcanada.ca with any comments or questions.