Standards & Metadata
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Got ebooks? Here’s a primer on ONIX 3.0 just for you. We’ll get you set up with the ONIX manual, show you which sections to look at, and explain a bit about why things are set up the way they are. Bonus: Your host is a gnome named Biblio. A metagnome, if you will. You’ll…
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OK, so you’ve heard about Thema, the new international standard for book classification, but you’re already using BISAC. Is there an easy way to find Thema codes for your titles based on the BISAC codes you already have? Never fear: the BISAC to Thema Translator is here!
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Converting ONIX 2.1 to ONIX 3.0 is a very useful way to learn where “stuff” goes in ONIX 3.0 but publishers are confused why, once they’ve done the conversion, it’s just not good enough. I’ve been participating in arguments about it–and, as always, after the fact, came up with a succinct explanation. Be happy you…
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It’s a vexing question. I like to explain ONIX for Books by separating out the standard (what you track as metadata) from the technical side (XML, which can be thankfully ignored in this post). ONIX as a standard is a way for two companies to exchange information about books without ambiguity by using published definitions.…
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BNC BiblioShare has been getting queries from publishers asking why after dropping a record from their ONIX feed it hasn’t disappeared from The 49th Shelf. BiblioShare supplies data to a lot more firms than The 49th Shelf and that list is growing, but we like that you’re paying attention and finding problems in 49thShelf.com. Here’s…
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What are the general guidelines for producing “good” ONIX support for e-books? Quality data exchange requires two things: clarity about how Product Identifiers are being used and the use of the ONIX 3.0 standard. Given that we are lacking both of these things, the answer to how to make a “good” e-book is a bit…
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At BookNet, we sometimes find ourselves trying to defend ONIX . People are often asking, “Why can’t it be easy?” But it is. After the last time I heard this I thought that a review of why ONIX is easy was due.
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An ISTC is a new way of linking different formats of the same book. Unlike an ISBN, it is tied to the book and only the book, not the publisher. A simple example is using an ISTC to link the hardcover, trade paper, mass market, and epub versions of a title. Even though each format…
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ONIX for Books is an international standard for exchanging important information about books and related products.Here we take you through the basics: what you need to know about ONIX and how to use it.
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The sheer number of metadata standards in the cultural heritage sector is overwhelming, and their inter-relationships further complicate the situation. A new resource, Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe, is intended to assist planners with the selection and implementation of metadata standards.