What's New In Bibliographic Standards

Data exchange is never static. Here are some recent changes to best practices and standards that the industry is implementing.

2017 BISAC Subject Codes

November 2017

The 2017 BISAC Subject list is available from BISG (free to their members): http://bisg.org/page/PurchaseBISAC

and can be viewed in full on-line: http://bisg.org/page/bisacedition

The BISAC Subject list highlights changes to make it easy to update. 86 new codes have been added throughout list, but here are some areas with multiple addition:

Biography & Autobiography
Comics & Graphic Novels
Fiction (27 in total)

Historical
LGBT (two sections affected)
Mystery & Detective
Romance (10!)

Study Aids
Technology & Engineering: Food Sciences
Travel: Special Interest
True Crime

There are other changes integrated in the main list but are also provided segregated to highlight the change. In each case the code's relationships within the list has changed and it's use should be reviewed. A better or more focused option may exist:

31 Literals updated (the code remains active)
3 codes have been made inactive (the code is no longer used)
5 codes have had their scope reduced (the code remains active)

For more information see the BISG Subject List, on-line reference and general information. The BISAC to Thema Mapping will be released later.

The general expectation is that the industry will update their records – including backlist -- to reflect these changes. BISAC Subjects are designed to support retailers and as a list represents a snapshot of what a retailer needs to know, today. By updating your records yearly you ensure retailers can make the best use possible of all your records. The above changes only represent 4% of the list. This year, unless you publish graphic novels or histories of Great Britain you likely won't have many changes.

When should a publisher update their list is always a question: If a trading partner hasn't updated their system data can be lost, or sometimes the record won't get loaded, so it's good to give retailers time to up and generally publishers updating by Feb / March is fairly safe. If you've coded your biggest title carried a new BISAC Subject I'd get confirmation that my partners were ready to accept the data.

ONIX Codelist Issue 39

Released October 19, 2017.

Please see the attached for detailed changes.. Some of the changes are used the ONIX version update 3.0.4, but highlights of particular note are:

EDItEUR clarified entries on:

List 2 (3.0 only) Product Composition,
List 51 Product Relation (Related Product)
List 164 (3.0 only) Work Relation code.
List 175 (3.0 only) Product Form Detail

Clarified entries are always worth reviewing because it's done in response to misuse and need. These are all "basic" lists that everyone supports.

List 79 Product Form Feature (applies to 3.0 only) offers new support of "Point and watch" as an alternative to the already supported "Point and listen" codes

List 160 (3.0 only) Product Form has a new alternatives for

downloadable audio files that are also available for streaming.
streamed audio files.

List 239 (3.0 only) Supply contact as new role codes

Stay current: Update your Codelists, schemas and documentation regularly

Complete listings of the ONIX codelists in PDF and HTML formats can be downloaded from the EDItEUR website:

ONIX 2.1 documentation, codelists and schemas: http://www.editeur.org/15/Archived-Previous-Releases
ONIX 3.0 documentation:
Issue 37 stand-alone codelist documentation as readable PDF or HTML
Issue 37 TXT, CSV, XML, JSON files for loading into your data management applications, and XSD, RNG, DTD schema modules for use with existing XSD, RNG and DTD schemas
Issue 37 has also been incorporated into the Specification and Best Practice Guide documentation packages for ONIX 3.0
Need help finding the documentation? Finding and Using the ONIX Manual

New addition to the Canadian Bibliographic Standard
January 2017

Date Recommendations for Canadian Publishers

ONIX 2.1 is now a completely static standard

January 2017

As of Code Issue 36 January 2017 EDItEUR will no longer update future ONIX 2.1 schema to include new "shared" code lists. In short: New codes in Issue 36 are part ONIX 2.1, but any new code in Issue 37 or after will not be.

Functionally this means that the ONIX 2.1 schema published by EDItEUR in January 2017 includes Issue 36 codes but will never be changed after this point. This marks the end of the extended twilight support offered by EDItEUR. Therefore: BNC BiblioShare will continue to process ONIX 2.1 as usual, but will base all future processing on the last published schema for Issue 36.

Thema version 1.2, updated August 2016 with Chinese national extension

The latest version of Thema, version 1.2, released April 2016, has had a major update with Chinese national extensions. See details here: Changes for Thema August 2016.pdf

See more about using Thema here: Thema Subject Codes

BNC THEMA to BISAC Translator Updated

Released March 2016 – the translator supports BISAC 2015 to Thema version 1.1.

While each standard is updated yearly, BISAC releases a new version in Nov / Dec and Thema updates in March / April. This makes syncing the two standards problematic. The translator is updated based on word done by BISG in January and February making it out of date foe Thema around the same it's released. Care should be taken to try to incorporate changes to Thema on with it's yearly release.

Active 979 ISBN-13s are in BiblioShare now

October/November 2015

There's only a few of them, but they represent real books actually being bought and sold in Canada today. Up to now any 979 ISBN in our data had been a test or a typo and not being traded. So let's pause for a moment and mark the functional end of the ISBN-10 in North America. It's been a long run and a good time.

Any company with a report based on ISBN-10 (Mother BookNet knows they're out there still and doesn't judge) should convert it to an ISBN-13 based one. Up to now you could still convert a 978 ISBN-13 to a unique ISBN-10 but you can't do that with a 979 ISBN-13 – there is no corresponding ISBN-10 to a 979 ISBN-13.

It is recommended that all companies test their systems to ensure that they really are ready for 979 ISBNs – funny things can happen when your primary identifier starts with new digits.

Best Practices for Product Metadata: Guide for North American Data Senders and Receivers

June 2015 – NEW EDITION RELEASED

A joint BookNet Canada / BISG document that defines the 32 most important pieces of data exchanged in the North American market, provides detail for ONIX 2.1 and 3.0 and offers advice on all product types including print and digital.

What's New In Bibliographic Standards

It and the EDItEUR ONIX for Books Implementation and Best Practice Guide for ONIX 3.0 (which can be used as a reference to understand many aspects of ONIX 2.1) should be the primary documents used by anyone using or implementing ONIX in North America.

Best Practices for Identifying Digital Products updated

February 2013

BISG Policy Statement POL-1101 -- Best Practices for Identifying Digital Products

An excellent document from 2011 is fully updated and made clearer and more specific.