A Million Little PiecesIdentifying Digital Book Content

Cecin’est pas un livreDifferent formatsEbooks – EPUB, Kindle, PDF, downloadable audioPhysical books – hardcover, trade paper, mass market, large print, POD, audiobookChapter-by-chapter – does the customer need/want the whole book?Some books make great websitesTravel (Frommers.com)Recipes (Epicurious)

Identifying ebooksOne ISBN/format?Maintaining metadata on all these formats is confusing and repetitiveISBNs are expensiveISBN for EPUB only?Ebookdistribs will assign ISBNs (or other identifiers) – publishers not in controlHow to track sales for different formats?New identifier?Reinventing the wheelHow to get the book industry to use it consistently?Standards take a long time to get through ISO

Identifying chaptersISBN bloat in databases (Caravan project)Exponentially more complicated than one- ISBN-per-ebook-formatCost of ISBNs for something like this is prohibitive for many publishersCost to industry of inventing a new identifier for chaptersDOI is useful – but is a pointer to content location – content still needs to be identified

Identifying “chunks”Exponentially complex For sale or display or license?How to locate relevant chunks in GBS and Internet Archive?

The Lady or the Tiger?Assign ISBNs to everything in sight (and deal with the metadata pandemonium)Invent new identifiers (which will take many years)Let the marketplace decide (and cede discoverability to third parties)

Useful resourcesBISG/BISAC Identifiers Subcommittee – www.bisg.orgUS ISBN Agency – www.isbn.orgLJNDawson – www.ljndawson.comPersona Non Data – personanondata.blogspot.com