A presentation about the need for better digital metadata in the book industry. The presentation was given om May 26th 2015 as an introduction at The Danish Publishers Association's members' meeting about the launch of the Danish translation of the THEMA Classification System for books.

1. Why metadata?
WHY METADATA?

2. Why metadata?
WHY METADATA?
A presentation given at The Danish Publishers’
Associations members’ meeting about
Thema – the subject category scheme
for a global book trade
May 26th, 2015
Classification is a small but important part of
the large set of metadata, that follows a book
throughout the supply chain.
This presentation deals with why publishers
and retailers today have to work with metadata
in a more focused and strategic way.

3. Why metadata?
MARIE, IN SHORT
• Independent book industry consultant
• Digital Production Manager at Danish Gyldendal
Publishers until late 2014
• Metadata and infrastructure (on both strategic and
operational levels)
• Operates between IT, business and content
This presentation is a combination of a peptalk and a brief
overview of the current situation.
Find my contact information on the last slide.

4. Why metadata?
• Challenges and jobs to do
• What can we do?
• A first step: better classification with THEMA
THE NEXT 15 MINUTES

5. Why metadata?
CHALLENGES AND
JOBS TO DO
The book business faces many
challenges, caused mainly by the
digitization of sales channels and
business models. The traditional
model is neither efficient nor
sufficient.

6. Why metadata?
• Daily content diet
• The right time and place
• Convenience
A FIGHT FOR ATTENTION
Branchen står over for en række nye udfordringer, primært
forårsaget digitalisering af salgskanaler og
forretningsmodeller, hvor branchens traditionelle model
hverken er effektiv eller tilstrækkelig
People spend on average 50 minutes
on their daily feed. Each instance gets 3
seconds of attention, and the average
person retains or acts upon 6 of these a
day. We would very much like
something book related to be among
those 6.

7. Why metadata?
• Formats
• Sales channels &
Business models
• Internationalization
HEAVY GROWTH
A variety of digital and physical
formats; published synchronously,
but differently handled
Both brick & mortar and
online book stores;
Unit sales, subscriptions,
licensing, lending, …
Global sales:
National/international retailers;
National/international customers

8. Why metadata?
• More information types
• Enhanced quality
and precision
• Increased complexity
BETTER METADATA
REQUIRED Extent, audience, more
subject codes, several
descriptions, reviews, …
2 authors go in 2 fields,
don’t put series name in
subtitle field, historic
fiction is better than just
fiction, …
Relations to other product types, earlier
editions, author ID, formats, versions,
DRM, sales restrictions, …

9. Why metadata?
PRICES UNDER PRESSUREMONEY
TIME
sales
processes

10. Why metadata?
• Nielsen whitepaper 2012:
The Link Between Metadata and
Sales
THE DATA WE HAVE, 1
BIC BASIC (12 basic information types) are
important in brick & mortar book stores. BIC BASIC
data are most significant for fiction.
ENHANCED METADATA (short+long descriptions,
reviews, author portrait) are very important for online
sales, and most significant for fiction and trade non-
fiction (up to 178% increased sales).

11. Why metadata?
• BISG report 2012:
Development, Use, and Modification
of Book Product Metadata
THE DATA WE HAVE, 2?
An overview of the North American supply chain.
The report points out problems and optimization
opportunities. A range of recommendations are
given, among which are the establishment of
feedback loops, meticulous updating practices
(this goes for publishers as well as retailers!),
and a common understanding of who has the
responsibility for different tasks

12. Why metadata?
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We need to keep our books discoverable
and relevant to the reader, and we need to
make sure that the book can always find
the reader, regardless of her context.

13. Why metadata?
Adopt industry standards
• Exchange
• Identification
• Classification
• …
WE NEED TO SPEAK THE
SAME LANGUAGE
ONIX, EDItX
ISBN, ISTC,
ISNI
THEMA
SCHEMA.ORG,
DOI, …

14. Why metadata?
• Automation
• Data discipline
WE NEED TO REDUCE THE
NUMBER OF PROCESSES
There is no time to look up data
in heavy binders, nor to fill in
complex spreadsheets.
Data must be maintaned in one single place.
Data must be created as close to the source as
possible: Editorial supplies descriptions and
subject codes, Production supplies extent and
format; Sales & Marketing supplies prices,
reviews, sales restrictions, …

15. Why metadata?
• Precision
• Details
• Relations
WE MUST ENHANCE
DISCOVERABILITY
No tag abuse, be meticulous,
aim at completeness!
Include all relevant
information. Supply different
texts for different
audiences/uses, include all
contributors. Don’t forget SEO.
Relations to other formats, other/earlier
editions, the English original, the
abbreviated version, books in the same
series, books by the same author, …

16. Why metadata?
• Metadata
ownership
• Creation close
to source
WE NEED TO BE
RESPONSIVE
We need the ability to change the
metadata whenever needed.
Ability to select and send the set of
metadata that you at a given point of time
find to be the optimal for a given retailer.
There is no time to complete or correct metadata
downstream.
Data must be completed where they are born
(Editorial, Production, Sales, …)

17. Why metadata?
• Combine sales and
reading data with
metadata
WE MUST CAPITALIZE ON
SALES DATA
Which books (which genres, authors, series)
sell the most? And when? And to whom? We
would very much like to publish more books
like these!
Ask retailers for data about sales and reading
behaviour when price is under pressure.

18. Why metadata?
• A FIRST STEP: BETTER
CLASSIFICATION WITH
THEMA

19. Why metadata?
• Same book on
many shelves
• Recommendation
algorithms
ONLINE SALES CHANNELS
One book can be both crime fiction,
historic fiction and feminist
litterature. Readers of all 3 genres
must find the book when browsing
categories online
The richer and the more precise a book is
subject classified, the more relevant to
the user can the recommendations be,
thus increasing the chance of a
subsequent sale.

20. Why metadata?
• No mapping
• National
differences
INTERNATIONAL
When there is no translation,
there is no loss of
information. It also limits the
risk of errors downstream.
THEMA holds so-called qualifiers. They
are used to describe cultural, historic,
geograophic and infrastructural
differences between the countries (and
their book markets)

21. Why metadata?
• Supply more subject codes
• Be precise
• Use THEMA as your internal scheme
PUBLISHERS’ JOBS
Metadata is about communication. Complete,
accurate and timely metadata are the result of
good business processes and clear ‘ownership’
of each data element
(inspired by:
ONIX for Books,
Global Best Practices)

22. Why metadata?
GET IN TOUCH …
Pruneau
/Marie Bilde Rasmussen
mariebilde@pruneau.dk
+45 51 999 111
http://pruneau.dk
Twitter:
@PruneauDK
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pruneau
https://dk.linkedin.com/in/mariebilderasmussen