2. Today’s Workshop
What is metadata?
Book metadata in product information files
Book metadata in digital content files
Book metadata carriers
Who creates and uses metadata?
The metadata lifecycle
What makes metadata powerful?
What makes metadata powerful?
What are the most important metadata elements?
Core metadata elements
Enhanced metadata elements
Exercises
Finding the right information
Capturing the core metadata elements
Adding enhanced metadata
Creating ONIX metadata
Distributing and updating metadata

3. What is metadata?
Metadata describes a product or a piece of content. It is the
“language” used to communicate information needed for commerce.
Book metadata in product information files
•
Is shared with trading partners (wholesalers, distributors
retailers, etc.)
•
Is usually first distributed in advance of publication
•
Is updated as needed pre- and post-publication
•
Is used to populate bookseller sites and drives behind-thescenes commerce and transactional activities

4. What is metadata?
Metadata describes a product or a piece of content. It is the
“language” used to communicate information needed for commerce.
Product metadata includes:
•
Information about a book’s packaging and format
•
•
Information about a book’s content
•
•
Hardcover, paperback, digital …
Title, contributor, summary
Information needed to buy and sell the book
•
Price, distribution details, rights information …

5. Book metadata in digital content files
•
Is embedded in files carrying the actual content
•
Should be fully leveraged but doesn’t replace the need for
product information records and files
•
Is used by reading devices to display information about
content on “bookshelves”
•
Has potential to carry much richer metadata due to the
work of IDPF on the EPUB standard

6. The metadata carrier is not the metadata!
ONIX for Books is the international standard for sending
and receiving book product metadata.
But ONIX isn’t metadata – it carries metadata just as a
print catalog “carries” information about books.
EPUB is a free and open standard for carrying digital
content (the product itself) and accompanying
metadata.

7. Metadata Standards, Best Practices, and
Controlled Vocabularies
•Languages have grammar (structure), style rules (best
practices), and vocabularies.
•As a form of communication, metadata does too.
•In the exercises, we’ll talk about when information is taken
directly from the content and when it is communicated using
codes or vocabularies to make sure it’s correctly interpreted
by receiving systems.
•The carrier (ONIX) dictates some metadata elements that must
be present for the file to be valid.
•National and international industry organizations help define
the best practices for effective communication and
bookselling.

8. Who creates and uses metadata?
The Metadata
Lifecycle

9. What makes metadata powerful?
Powerful metadata provides a rich description of the product and
meets business needs.
Powerful metadata supports:
What readers need
•A compelling search and discovery experience
•User engagement, evaluation, and sales through content-rich
information
•Recommendation algorithms and website sort options (by
subject, genre, audience, age level, format, etc.) by providing
full and accurate information

10. What makes metadata powerful?
Powerful metadata provides a rich description of the product and
meets business needs.
Powerful metadata supports:
The business needs of publishers and their trading
partners
•A compelling experience for potential readers leading to more
sales
•Communication between publisher and bookseller
•Business transactions
•Publicity and marketing activities
•Sales tracking and market analysis
•Business intelligence

11. Metadata in Publishing Workflow

12. Metadata, Search Engines, and
Search Engine Optimization
Bookseller search engines
(Publisher websites, Amazon, Barnes & Noble ...)
These search engines are directed at bookseller databases
populated by product metadata. Publishers contribute directly
to this data.
General search engines
(Google, Yahoo, Bing …)
General search engines websites over the entire Web. The
completeness and quality of metadata sent to bookseller sites
contributes to search results but so do many other factors
relating to the website.

13. Search Engine Optimization
What’s within your control?
•Some things are beyond your control but the quality of your
metadata shouldn’t be one of them.
•Make sure that metadata supplied to all trading partners is as
rich, complete, and accurate as possible.
•While there’s no guarantee that quality metadata will result in
a best seller, its absence will almost certainly guarantee its
obscurity.
SEO and Keywords
•Good descriptive metadata is the best way to optimize for
search.
•Keyword stuffing and other tricks and routinely discovered
and punished by search engines.
•Keywords and phrases are still important but don’t write
marketing content around them.
•Write with the intended audience in mind, considering the
most compelling way to describe the book

14. What are the most important metadata
elements?
Metadata for search, discovery, and commerce
•Content description (Title, Author, Summary, Subjects …)
•Product description (Format, Number of items …)
•Commerce (ISBN, Price, On-Sale Date, Territorial Rights …)
Metadata to stand out in the marketplace
•Evaluative metadata (Reviews, Awards …)
•Author information (Author biographies, Author Awards ...)
•Any other information that adds value or supports search

15. Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Product Metadata Best Practices
Core Metadata Elements
Recommended for all titles and mandatory for BISG Certification
•Identifier
•Product Form/Format
•Title/Subtitle
•Contributor(s)
•Language of Product Content
•Extent (Page count, Run time, File size …)
•Publisher/Imprint/Brand Name
•Subject(s)
•Intended Audience
•Textual Description
•Publisher/Imprint/Brand Name
•Publisher Status Code
•Publication Date
•Return Code
•Product Availability Code
•Price
•Digital Image of Product
•Territorial Rights

16. Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Product Metadata Best Practices
Core Plus Metadata Elements
Highly recommended when applicable. Mandatory if applicable for BISG Certification
All products
•Edition
•Country of Publication
•Series/Set Information
•Strict on sale date
•Age range (for juvenile and young adult)
•Distributor/Vendor of record
•Related products
Physical products
•Bar Code indicator
•Country of manufacture
•Case pack/Carton quantity
•Weight and Dimensions
•Number of Pieces
Digital products
•DRM/Usage Constraints
•Software/hardware requirements

17. Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Product Metadata Best Practices
Enhanced Metadata Elements
Optional but strongly recommended
All formats
•Author/Contributor Biography
•Illustration Details
•Book Excerpt
•Prizes and Awards
•Reviews
•Original Publication Date
•Reading Age (for juvenile titles)
•Grade Range (for juvenile titles)
•Keywords
Digital formats
Digital Product Form (EPUB, Mobi …)
Digital Product Description

18. Exercises
Find the right information
Title page
Title page verso/Copyright page

19. Exercises
Capture core metadata elements

20. Exercises
Capture core metadata elements

21. Exercises
Add enhanced metadata elements

22. Exercises
Enter records into the ONIXEDIT system

23. Exercises
Enter records into the ONIXEDIT system

26. Validate records

27. Export to ONIX

28. Metadata in ONIX
Metadata Handbook Paperback

29. The Metadata Handbook:
A Book Publisher’s Guide to Creating And Distributing Metadata for Print and Ebooks
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participants!
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