BISAC Regional Themes

To provide additional help to retailers in identifying books of specific interest, BISAC has also established Merchandising Codes which are not used much in Canada, and a system to identify Regional Themes. Canadian retailers and The 49th Shelf have identified this as something of interest to them.

At the moment the formal list identifies provinces and a very limited number of cities and sub-regions, but further refinement is possible. Like BISAC Subjects, the Regional Themes should be supported by actual published books.  This allows greater flexibility as the theme can be as loosely geographical as The Canadian Rockies (available), and has the potential to be as specific as a Montreal neighbourhood (no one has proposed one yet) – it's just a matter of how much is published.

A regional theme is intended to refer to the book's content (there are separate means in ONIX to identify the author's home town) and should be used to highlight a book for:

• Appropriate sales representatives;

• Regional purchase by booksellers and chain buyers;

• Cataloging considerations and regional librarians;

• Regional promotions and media.

The point of the Regional Theme is not to limit national sales, but rather to highlight regional opportunities. 

Proposals for new codes should be sent to biblio@booknetcanada.ca. Please note, however, that before BISAC will consider them we must have a list of 50 to 100 titles to demonstrate actual need (BookNet and it's Bibliographic Committee will attempt to build the list from multiple publishers, so if you perceive a need to define a region, let us know).

Note that books about other geographical areas can be similarly supported – the full list is here and there's no reason not to highlight a book related to Prague! – but here is a list of the current Canadian regions covered.