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.

ONIX Codelist Issue 43

Released November 7, 2018

Please see the full list of changes here..  You should look at the full list but highlights of particular note to Canadians are:

EDItEUR is building improvements to support audio books and List 51 (Product relation/Related Product) supports two new inverse tags for "Adapted from" and "Adapted as" for dramatized, abridged or novelized version and it's source book; List 81 Product content type has a clarification for 13 - "Other speech content" to help differentiate it from 02 - "Performance"; and two new code lists, 240 and 241 to be used in Block 3 Content to support a new audio visual section. Another audio related change is the addition of a non-ISO Language code (it exists in the ONIX code list only) for "Neutral Latin American Spanish" needed to support tracks containing accent, vocabulary and construction suitable for broad use across Latin America.  Finally, List 153 Text Type (Text Content) supports a new code for "Full cast and credit list" for dramatized products as well as a new "Secondary flap" code if the flaps and back cover contain different copy.

Other changes include a new Website role to for privacy statements (eg GDPR support) and two new codes for Publishing data role to support other types of embargo dates.  The current one, 02 is the start date for digital downloads and print sales but the new ones are specific to streaming and subscriptions.  These codes are necessitated because digital products may include price options that can allow one vs another for a single ISBN (Note we're not aware of extensive trading of this metadata in North America).

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
(Use ONIX Code List Issue 36 with ONIX 2.1)

ONIX 3.0 documentation:

• Issue 43 stand-alone codelist documentation as readable PDF or HTML
• Issue 43 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 43 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 and Code Lists

BISAC TO THEMA Translator updated to support BISAC 2017 and Thema 1.3

BISAC 2018 to Thema 1.3 should be completed in December 2018 or January 2019.   
To find our more about the Translator here is a link to the introductory blog post:  http://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2014/4/24/introducing-bncs-bisac-to-thema-translator.html#.U8WO8PldXMQ

Thema Version 1.3.0 Released

May 8, 2018

EDItEUR has published Thema version 1.3 – the third significant revision of the Thema subject classification scheme.  The complete English language version is available to download from the EDItEUR website:
http://www.editeur.org/151/thema
an Excel spreadsheet, readable PDF and HTML and  as an XML or JSON file, ready for import into data management systems.

The online multilingual Thema browser at https://ns.editeur.org/thema/ has been updated to version 1.3. The old version 1.2 browser is still available at https://ns.editeur.org/thema12/.   Please note that not all of the other languages updates have been completed but EDItEUR will keep it's website updated. EDItEUR provided the following summary of significant changes:

A summary of changes: ThemaV1.3_Additions_changes.pdf.   Thema remains fully backward compatible and there are no significant deviations from Versions 1.0 and 1.2  

In addition to a massive number of new National Qualifers released after Version 1.2 was complete, Version 1.3 includes  261 new core subject codes and 153 new qualifiers. A lot of the changes that have been made are about adding clarity to the meaning of existing codes. The attached PDF document has a complete list of all the new codes and the changes.

• Fiction (F*) has a lot of new codes and changes to existing codes to provide more granularity and choice.
• Clarification to the top-level heading for T* to indicate it applies to industrial processes and that T* codes can be used for titles dealing with the associated skills, trades and professions.
• Children’s, Teenage & Educational has had a lot of new codes and revisions, particularly in the YN* and YX* sections to allow for more detail in general interest / non-fiction as well as increasing the options for giving greater clarity to the YF* codes (Fiction) which can be combined with general interest codes.
• The addition of the new core place qualifiers that are not national extensions.
  • The addition of dates to the time period qualifiers that were missing these.
  • The addition of new educational purpose qualifiers to give more choice to distinguish titles for exams, tests
  • A new group of interest qualifiers 5L* - relating to stages of life, to allow for clarification of subject matter (not audience) for different types of fiction and non-fiction titles dealing with different age groups. 
  • Clarification of the use of codes for reluctant readers (5AR) and Emergent readers (5AX) plus a new qualifier code for titles intended for   people with learning or communication difficulties (5AZ).

Revised Best Practices for Keywords in Metadata: Guide for North American Data Senders and Receivers

February 2018:  has been published.   You can get yours, free, from

https://bisg.site-ym.com/  
Industry Resources / Publications  -- search "keywords"

It's chock-a-block with examples, samples and sage advice. 

Revision completed to ISO ISBN Standard December 2017

We're now at the 5th edition of the ISBN standard and it's not revised often so this is big news on our most important identifier.  This revision was over 2 years in the making.  Download the new version of the ISBN User Manual (the seventh edition as of January 2018)
https://www.isbn-international.org/content/isbn-users-manual

It's only 34 pages long and genuinely helpful.   You can also find the very helpful ISBN FAQ

The new Standard contains:

• expanded guidance on assignment to digital publications
• revised metadata specifications which now bring these in line with ONIX 3.0
• expanded terms and definitions sections
• further clarity on the scope of eligible products
• detailed guidance on the granularity of individual products and the impact on ISBN assignment, such as changes in usage constraints (allowing printing of some pages of a digital publication or lending to a friend), or different product form details (jacketed versus unjacketed hardback)
• an informative annex about how to make ISBN resolvable on digital networks using persistent identifiers, such as expressing an ISBN in DOI or URN
• explanation about the conditions of compliance when implementing ISBN

If you need more information on ISBN head over to BookNet Canada's ISBN page

2017 BISAC Subject Codes

November 2017

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

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 Version 3.0.4 released

 November 2017

Attached:  Changes for ONIX 3.0.4.pdf

•  This is a relatively small version update and is well detailed in the attached documentation.  Highlights of particular interest in Canada are:
•  Supporting detailed contact information for Suppliers, including using identifiers and establishing a unique code list for the Role.
•  The Price Constraint established for digital use in Version 3.0.3 needed additional support for licensing which has been provide in a Price specific Epub License and Expression composites.
•  Name as Subject’s definition has been broadened to allow it to support fictional characters, both fictionalize versions of real people or organizations as well as entirely fictional entities
• Support for “reserved” stock.  This is generally something traded between publishers and distributors and not released to retailers, but it can now be carried within an ONIX record.
• Support for Language within Content.   While North American metadata doesn’t  currently make use of Content Item, this is expected to change as it’ where complicated structured content can be added.   That content might be in a different language than the record and it can now be specified.
• There a several other changes, one to support for French taxes within price and some additional tweaks to Content Item that can be found in the attached document

New interactive code list lookup sites available

 EDItEUR supports both ONIX Code lists and Thema Subject and Qualifier lists with dedicated lookup sites, complete with their notes.  Pro tip on using either of these in any form:  Read the notes!  You can't know the intent of the value without them and using precisely defined metadata is fundamental to any business exchange.  The description is not intentionally misleading but the notes give clarity. Use your software drop downs as reminders of for the definitions the notes provide and these interactive look-ups make it easy to check. (A little prompt to developers: You should think about how to integrate note access into your ONIX systems and these might help.)

 ONIX 3.0 (updated with every code issue):   https://ns.editeur.org/onix/en

ONIX 2.1 (locked to Issue 36):  https://ns.editeur.org/onix36/en

Interactive Thema code list site:  https://ns.editeur.org/thema/en

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.

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.