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

BISAC TO THEMA Translator updated to support BISAC 2018 and Thema 1.3

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

ONIX Codelist Issue 44

Released January 24, 2018

Please see the full list of changes here.  Please remember that ONIX 2.1 codes remain locked at Issue 36 and new codes are not available to it for shared lists.

You should look at the full list but highlights of particular note to Canadians are:

  • ONIX code list 153 Text type and List 158 Resource content type support a new code, Bibliography, to allow for a full listing of of books by the author(s) in a single document.
  • List 145 Usage type / List 230 Price Constraint type now support Preview on premises – previews allowed only while physically in a store logged into their wifi
  • List 79 Product Form Feature now supports "Requirement for user authentication prior to use"  (ONIX 3.0 only)
  • List 102 Sales Outlet identifier now supports GLN and SAN (ONIX 3.0 only)
  • Two new additions to List 12 Trade Category (ONIX 3.0 only).  A review of data in BiblioShare shows there is limited support for Trade Category in either ONIX 2.1 or 3.0, mostly to identify US open market of International editions.  It's noted here not because the new codes are particularly special for Canadians but to highlight it exists.  This Code list allows a high level association to be made with a product that could be a useful solution to business communication problems. This is a code list we might profitably use.
  • There are major revisions to the following, noted because these lists are important but seldom change
    • List 49 Region codes to provide new Chinese codes and deprecate previous entries (ONIX 3.0 only)
    • List 74 Language codes   3 additions and a modification (ONIX 3.0 only)
    • List 96 Currency Code a modification (ONIX 3.0 only)

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:

Need help finding the documentation?  Finding and Using the ONIX Manual and Code Lists

2018 BISAC Subject Codes

November 2018

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

For more information see the BISG Subject List, on-line reference and general information. 

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 3.0.5 released

Released October 26, 2018

Attached:  Changes for ONIX 3.0.5.pdf

While version changes are usually every second year or a bit less, this small version change was brought in a year after the last change to provide support to:

  • Audiobook whose table of contents include special needs for time codes.   While these can be supported now as free text the update allows them to be provided in a more structured way in Block 3 Content.  There's good reason for a more structured approach and this may require serious consideration for support of the currently seldom used Content composite.
  • Block updates, which have not been implemented widely yet, had a minor flaw where it wasn't possible to use a block update to overwrite with nothing for Blocks 2, 3 and 5 (the only option would have been to do a full update without providing information in those blocks).   A tweak provides a way for use in updates that allows for an a complete overwrite of a Block by providing an "empty" Block.  To be clear: an empty block is not allowed in a full record update - the change allows for its use only in declared updates using Notification Type "04" Update to designate it as a block update.  
  • A tag for use in countries where books are fully exempted from taxes now exists
  • A pallet quantity has now been added, similar to pack quantity (number of books in a carton).  This provides the number of books on a pallet

The above PDF provides a short and readable explanation.

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


ONIX Version 3.0.4 released

 November 2017 – Note:  Version 3.0.5 released November 2018, this is left to document changes as both versions are small.

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.

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