#standardsgoals for 2021: Standards & certification roundup

Standards Overview
Spring 2021
Tom Richardson
April 13, 2021

Tech Forum 2021 #TechForum Questions? standards@booknetcanada.ca
Participation
We want you to participate in standards – it can be as easy as contacting us with
an idea or a problem, participating in one of our products’ user groups (BookNet
products always strive for compliance with standards) , or joining a committee.
BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards,
and education to support Canadian publishing companies, booksellers,
wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, industry associations, literary agents,
media, and libraries across the country.
Our staff work with other Canadian companies to solve supply chain problems
using standards. We ensure compatibility with US and international standards.
Standards exist to benefit their users

• EDI
• Subject Schemes
– BISAC
– Thema
• Identifiers
– ISBN/GTIN/ISNI
• Others...
– ISO/W3C
GDSN/SAN
• BISG (US)
– Metadata
– Workflow
– Subjects
– Supply-chain (EDI)
– Identifiers
• EDItEUR
– ONIX Int Steering Committee
– Thema Int Steering Committee
• BTLF (Quebec)
BNC Standards

BNC Bibliographic Committee
– Canadian English Language
national group for ONIX
– Canadian English Language
national group for Thema
BNC Standards

There’s not much new to say

But everything is different
in this pit of
Needed, Important & Timely.

All the
now-old-new-&-yet-to-be-implemented
is piling up.

ONIX 3.0
Current ONIX Issue 52 (Code lists) and 3.0.7 (Version)
Version 3.0.8 will release Spring 2021.
• The primary change in 3.0.8 is the addition of
Block 8 Production Detail to enable trading of assembly instructions for
digital packages for ebooks, POD or audiobooks.
• It’s optional and unlikely to be seen in general ONIX feeds
• It’s not intended to support ordering.
• Block 8 has been undergoing beta testing for 6 months.

ONIX 3.0
Version 3.0.8 Minor additions.
• A dedicated element for Telephone Number added to
– P.26 SupplyContact and P.19 & P.25 ProductContact composites
• New element in Block 7 Promotional Event
– Add SupportingResource composite to facilitate downloading of
promotional materials like posters.
• New element in Audience composite
– Add AudienceHeadingText element for supplementary information

ONIX 3.0
Amazon has extended it’s ONIX 3.0 deadline to end of April 2021
• Most Canadian publishers appear to have met or be on track for meeting
Amazon’s minimum needs.
• It remains unclear how much of the rest of industry has changed, but
major US retailers and data suppliers can work in 3.0 (if they want to).
• Canadian distributors and retailers are still developing 3.0
• When support for ONIX 2.1 can end is not yet clear

ONIX 3.0
The overall quality of ONIX 3.0 in BiblioShare remains poor & has more 2.1-like-
structured than “good” ONIX 3.0 should be. Some US firms want to ensure
better quality by using schema to ensure they receive “good” ONIX 3.0
• If you’re unsure about a requested change, ask BNC. If it’s based on the
standard we can explain why it’s important and what the data should mean.
• Send us a test file of 100 records or so to be run against EDItEUR’s strict schema.
It’s great feedback on ONIX best practices in 3.0 and major issues.
• Starting April 28th we’re bringing back ONIX Office Hour – a weekly open call for
questions and discussions. Your problems drive our education goals (and it’s not
limited to ONIX).

Partial list of ONIX 3.0 Pain Points
Collections and Title
Using text instead of codes to
express pricing models
No Market territories, dates &
status OR using Sales rights, global
dates & status as market specific.
Not using / not supporting Block
2’s audience codes to support
Marketing collateral materials.
ONIX software that only supports
selected code values or lacking updates.
Using the Not-for-sale composite
instead of Sales rights type 03 to 06.
Requiring multiple reviews to be sent
as a single entry
Libraries note publishers don’t support
CIP in ONIX: Index, Bibliography & City
of publication

Revision planned:
BISG / BNC Best Practices for North American Metadata
Last revised in 2015 this remains the one document that clearly lays out the
35 things that, at a minimum, need support in North America metadata.
Each chapter is supported by a clear business case and need statement.
BISG with support from BNC is planning to update this important document
making this is a good to ask:
• What should I expect others to support from my metadata?
• What do I owe others as metadata?
• What’s important, today?
Let us know!

BISG / BNC Best Practices for North American Metadata
Product Record
01. Product Identifier
02. Barcode Indicator
Product Description (Block 1)
03. Product Form / PF-Detail Format
04. Weight and Dimensions (Measure)
05. Country of Manufacture
06. Digital Rights Management (DRM)
/Usage Constraints
/Digital product license
07. Product Parts / Number of Pieces
08. Collections: Series, Sets, and Bundles
09. Title
10. Contributor
11. Contributor Biography
12. Contributor Country Code / Region Code
13. Edition Information
14. Language(s) of Product Content
15. Page Count, Running Time, and Extent
16. Subjects
17. Intended Audience for Product
(Including Age Range)
18. Leveling / complexity
Marketing Collateral Detail (Block 2)
19. Textual Description of Content
20. Digital Image of Product
21. Prizes
Content Detail (Block 3)
22. Content Details
Publishing Detail (Block 4)
23. Publisher / Imprint / Brand Name
24. Global Publishing Status
25. Global Publication Date and Other
Publishing Dates
26. Strict On Sale Date / Embargo Date
27. Global Sales Rights / Territorial Rights
Related Material (Block 5)
28. Related Products and works
Product Supply (Block 6)
29. Markets
30. Distributor / Vendor of Record
31. Return Code
32. Product Availability Code
33. Case Pack / Carton Quantity
34. Price
35. Publisher’s Proprietary Discount Code
Appendix A: General Recommendations
for Data Recipients

Regional Codes
Contributor Place – a repeating composite supported by 10 codes
• Code “08” Nationality & country code of CA designates a Canadian Author
– Supports our long standing, industry wide, and very successful promotion
of Canadian authors through best seller lists, dedicated websites and that
opportunity for flag markers
• Code “04” Currently resides in is needed to support retailers and libraries
promotion of local authors. To work it needs
– Country code
– Region code – for province or state
– Location -- free text field for city name or regional sub-division.

Regional Codes
Contributor Place
As of Issue 50 (spring 2020) a new code was introduced:
• Code “00” Associated with To express unknown relationship types
(for use when expressing legacy ONIX 2.1 data in ONIX 3.0).
Code “07” Flourished in
• Overused, likely because it’s the least defined code so seen as multipurpose.
Recommended for dead authors where nationality isn’t relevant
– OR – as a comparative value:
Born/National/Resides/Educated here but Flourished somewhere else.
• Flourished in can be used regionally to great effect:
From Canada’s south but Flourished in its north;
From Winnipeg but Flourished in Edmonton.
Educated in Medicine Hat but Flourished in Hollywood.

Regional Codes
Regions are important at subjects
• Bookstores and libraries buy regionally because readers want locally defined
books. ‘Where’ can influence identity, and identity is part of diversity.
• Winnipeg’s North End 1930 to 1950 is not the same as The Ward in Toronto
during the late 19th century.
• Thema provides superb Qualifier list support for both Geography (~180
Canadian geography codes) and Time (5 year increments for recent history)
• BISAC Regional Themes list is more limited but still important
Citing nonuse for not supplying BISAC merchandising or regional themes and
Thema qualifier lists only means retailers can’t use what they don’t have.
Accurate regional coding can help sell books, it is wanted, and should be used

Subjects
BISAC Subjects
current version 2020
next version 2021 Nov/Dec
yearly cycle
https://bisg.org/page/BISACSubjectCodes
Thema
current version 1.4
next version 1.5 Oct
every 2nd year cycle
https://www.editeur.org/151/Thema/
BISAC to Thema Translator
current version BISAC 2019 to Thema 1.4
Updated when BISG makes a new mapping available
http://bisactothema.biblioshare.ca/

Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Subjects
Last year BISAC added a number of diversity related codes
including support for “own voices” in fiction.
Thema has been building extensive support for diversity
values since its inception – it provides superb, well
documented support that can be applied to a wide spectrum
of books. An “own voices” qualifier code used in conjunction
with List 5 Related to peoples code is being considered for
Version 1.5.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion in Contributors
If you missed this Tech Forum presentation it included details
of a BNC sponsored working group, chaired by Nicole Duguay
(Lorimer), looking at the pros and cons for supporting diversity
values on authors. Watch this to find out more!
Moving pieces
Industry initiatives you don’t want to miss
See BookNet’s weekly eNews for upcoming events.

ONIX and Thema training
In March BookNet Canada sponsored EDItEUR’s
Graham Bell’s and Chris Saynor’s
• ONIX Essentials
• ONIX Advanced
• Thema Essentials
We’re pleased to have them do it again
June 2021
See BookNet’s weekly eNews for upcoming events.

BISAC or Thema?
CataList and BiblioShare support both BISAC and Thema. We ask
that publishers support to provide the best quality.
The systems compliment each other:
• BISAC groups of books that sell in North America providing a
focused market overview
• Thema provides a structured subject-concept system and truly
international and translated to over 20 languages.
In North America, both are better with the support of the other.
Retailer use comes with data availability.

On the launch page for search results:
Home > Books > Teen and YA > Children’s / Teenage: Personal & social issues
the side bar provides these options for “Refining” the search
Children’s / Teenage: Personal & social issues
• Body & health
• Self-awareness & self-esteem
• Emotions
• Family issues
• death & bereavement
• Relationships (non-family)
• Drugs & addiction
• Disability & special needs
• living with disease & long-term conditions
• Racism & multiculturalism
• Bullying, violence, abuse & peer pressure
• personal safety
• runaways
• Truancy & school problems
Teenage personal & social issues
• Advice on careers & further education,
leaving school
Children’s / Teenage
• Social issues

Selecting from the side bar
Home > Books > Teen and YA > Children’s / Teenage: Racism & multiculturalism
brings you to multiple pages of 48 book entries per page

While many titles are clearly “social issue” books, there’s related fiction too

Accessibility Overview
All books are digital with print books sourced from a digital file formatted for
print, and an EPUB comes from a digital file formatted for screens. While there
are there are physical books that meet accessibility needs (described in Edition
codes in ONIX) accessibility in this context is all related to EPUBs.
The hard part of accessibility is learning how to “make accessible” ebooks and
certification programs exist to help in that. The expected outcome from them is
a workflow that incorporates accessibility features into the book’s digital file
from the outset and thereafter all EPUBs would share them. The publisher
would be recognized as a reliable source of accessible books. EPUB files have
information on their accessibility features embedded in them using coding
developed for schema.org. The EPUB’s version is important because what can
be created as a feature varies by version, and device support can be confirmed.

Accessibility Metadata
While all EPUBs that don’t disable features on readers can be said to be more
accessible it’s only by optimization that an EPUB 3 gains its full accessibility
potential. The primary purpose of the metadata is to document what
functionality can be expected in advance of purchase, and to allow retailers to
group accessible products appropriately.
This metadata is needed so that an educator, librarian, retailer or an individual
client or customer can assess the product’s suitability against specific needs
ONIX supports two primary tools using Product Form Feature:
• PF-Feature code “09” support for
Code list 196 E-publication Accessibility Details
• PF-Feature code “15” support for
Code list 220 E-publication format version code

Publishers generally want to know if there’s a crosswalk from EPUB coding to
ONIX and is there information on interpreting the ONIX codes:
Schmea.org accessibility codes crosswalk to ONIX Code list 196:
http://www.a11ymetadata.org/the-specification/metadata-crosswalk/
ONIX Code list 196 “Notes” are extremely detailed so be sure to use them.
As example, here are the notes for the “Full alternative descriptions” code:
All or substantially all non-text content has full alternative (textual) descriptions. Note this applies to
normal images (eg photographs, charts and diagrams) and also to any embedded audio, video etc.
Audio and video content should include full alternative descriptions (eg audio-described video) and
transcript, subtitles or captions (whether closed or open) suitable for hearing-impaired as well as for
visually-impaired readers. (Purely decorative non-text content can be ignored, but the accessibility of
resources delivered via a network connection rather than as part of the e-publication package must
be included)

Look for future developments – this is a growth area. Use other parts of ONIX
that can support accessibly metadata. As example:
ONIX 3.0 treats digital products as another book format and the best practice
would be to use Related products / Product relation code “06” Alternate format
to describe the relationship between Print and Digital. After all, the Product
Form should be supplied so the old Epublication specific codes 13 / 27 are
becoming redundant. Accessibility’s List 196 Code 19 “Print-equivalent page
numbering” benefits from the direct linking of the EPUB’s ISBN to the specific
Print ISBN that matches the pages. Educators need to know the matching
product and Product relation type code 13 “Epublication based on (print
product)” can be used. It’s early days – look for future developments.

Accessibility
There’s a lot of sources for information about making an EPUB accessible –
more than I have time to discuss -- but at the International Supply Chain
Seminar at Frankfurt October 2020 there was an exceptionally detail
presentation that we can recommend for an overview:
Building an accessible publishing workflow
Presented by Martin Klopstock and Arthur Thompson from Kogan Page, and Sean Harrison
from Book Genesis
https://www.editeur.org/files/videos/20201013%20KP%20720p.html

ONIX for Books
Acknowledgement Format Specification
It can support automation of messages. Amazon is using it.
• confirm receipt of the original ONIX message
• report to the original sender a summary of Product records processed and
updated into the recipient’s database
• report details of any errors encountered, or any queries about the product
data supplied, or
• return to the sender details of proprietary identifiers assigned by the recipient
• it can also be used for two way communication

ISNI.org
International Standard Name Identifier
BookNet Canada is a member organization. BTLF, our sister organization in
Quebec, is a registrar.
Between 50 and 70% of Canadian authors already have one assigned, and
most established publishers as well. They are available by simply looking
them up.
ISNI are a persistent unique identifier for content producers suitable and
recommended for both authors and publishers.

Thank you
trichardson@booknetcanada.ca
Standards questions? standards@booknetcanada.ca
booknetcanada.ca/newsletter-sign-up

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