1. 101 Primer:
The Roadmap of Identifiers and
g
the Business Cases for Their Usage
Scott Lubeck
Executive Director
BISG
The Changing Standards Landscape
g g p
Friday, June 25, 2010
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. 1

2. O e e
Overview
 Welcome
W l
 Who is BISG?
 The identifiers that matter to the book
industry
 What they do (or don’t)
 The future of identification
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

3. Creating a more informed,
empowered and efficient book
industry supply chain for both
physical and digital products
products.
BISG is committed to the development of effective
industry-wide standards best practices research
standards, practices,
and events that enhance relationships between
trading partners.
© 2010, the Book Industry Study 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
© Group, Inc

4. Improving the ratio of signal-to-
noise i the book i d
i in h b k industry
© 2010, the Book Industry Study 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
© Group, Inc

5. BISG’s Vision Statement
To become the book
industry leadership
organization in a time of
great transformation by
helping to build and support
a new industry network
enabling new opportunities
for profitable growth.
© 2010, the Book Industry Study 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
© Group, Inc

6. The puzzle we’re now solving…
p g
Illustration taken from:
The Math Book: From P th
Th M th B k F Pythagoras t th 57th Di
to the Dimension
i
by Clifford A. Pickover, Sterling Publishing
© 2010, the Book Industry Study 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
© Group, Inc

7. The ID roadmap
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

8. What’s an identifier do
at s a de t e do?
 Books (products)
 People (authors)
 Abstractions of real things (works)
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

9. Which are the important ones to the
book industry?
b ki d t ?
ISTC
ISNI
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc 9

10. The business purpose
always trumps…
trumps
…because it solves a tangible
g
problem
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11. A short history of identifiers
In the beginning there was . . .
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12. © 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

13. ISBN — International Standard
Book Number
B kN b
A pragmatic
solution to real
problems in the
supply chain
© 2009 Practical Innovations
Linear, l k d transparent, navigable, one
linked, bl
dimensional
© 2010, the Book Industry Study 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
© Group, Inc

14. ISBN — International Standard
Book Number
B kN b
In 1966 he helped put
books on the shelf for W.H.
Smith
Professor Gordon Foster
Fellow Emeritus
Founder of the ISBN
Standard
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

15. ISBN — International Standard
Book Number
B kN b
 Identifies a specific physical
manifestation of the book, hardcover,
paperback mass market edition, etc.
 Assigned to tradable products
g p
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

16. The truth about implementation
 Many
y identifiers are underutilized
 Implementation requires pain and
persuasion
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc 16

17. The implementation of the ISBN
took some persuasion
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

18. Identifiers take on meaning
when they solve real problems
and create real value
“A necessary requirement for selling your
publications through booksellers,
g
wholesalers and distributors is the
assignment of unique ISBN numbers for
h il ” id f l il h i
each title,” said a powerful retail chain.
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

19. Books want to be found
oo s a t ou d
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

20. What is an identifier t e
at s a de t e then?
 Signal!
g
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc 20

21. Proof of existence: ISBN therefore I
am

22. And identifiers at work evolve with
the
th world around th
ld d them
Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann
ISBN:
ISBN 9780750687119
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

23. “Plenty of numbers,
right? Actually, no.
Actually no
We're running out
of ISBNs under this
system. The
solution is to move
to the new,
improved 13 digit”
13-digit
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

24. Key to global reach: Control Code EAN
13 / ISBN 13 with Source Code 1 02
1.02
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

25. GDSN: A book by the numbers
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

26. Product identifier relationships
in
i a synchronized world
h i d ld
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

27. The future is now: Do you know
where your products are?
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

28. And, bac to t e future . . .
d, back the utu e

29. A tool for discovery
ISTC
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

30. Consumer empowerment
p
© Scanbuy, Inc
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

31. What is ISTC?
 The International Standard Text Code
◦ now an ISO (21047)
 An identifier for creative textual works
◦ prose, poetry, lyrics, screenplays, scripts
 These are abstract entities
◦ independent of binding-format-wrapper
 Not a supply-chain identifier for
supply chain
products
31
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

32. One ISTC per work
 On one creative textual work
◦ with a single ISTC
 We hang
◦ many “manifestations”
◦ or products
◦ each with an ISBN
http://www.bisg.org/contentweb/papers/the-international-standard-text-code-istc-a-work-in-progress/
32
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

33. What the signal looks like
g
year check digit
A02-2010-31F4CB2C-B
agency work
 The magic of hexadecimals...
◦ 4,096 available registration agencies
◦ each can register up to 4,294,967,296 annually
◦ annual capacity 17 592 186 044 416 works
17,592,186,044,416
 Anyone (with some authority) can register
33
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

34. Use cases from a publisher
o pub s e
 ISTC links all manifestations of a work—
whole or in part—directly and
unambiguously.
 ISTC li k all collateral material—
links ll ll t l t i l
marketing, promotional, advertising to all
manifestations of the work.
work
 ISTC accounts for sales reporting & royalty
reporting rollups as well as subrights
income.
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

35. More use cases from a pub s e
o e o publisher
 The Publisher determines that a graphic
novel
no el manifestation of a work sho ld carr
ork should carry
the same ISTC as the hardcover
manifestation of the same work, even
,
though the ISTC User Manual would
consider the graphic novel a derivation.
 Clearly define what constitutes a textual
Cl l d fi h t tit t t t l
work. Is a children’s board book with only
illustrations and the numbers 1-10 0
considered a textual work?
 ISTC is or is not a work identifier?
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

36. Use cases from the author
o t e aut o
 Who, when and how to request an ISTC
registration is clearly d f d Roles and
l l defined. l d
responsibilities are unambiguous.
 All stake holders large publishers small
holders, publishers,
publishers and content creators have equal
ability to register an ISTC. There are no
technical barriers to entry, such as the ability
to compile and transmit ONIX messages.
 R i t ti
Registration rules are fl ibl enough t b
l flexible h to be
clearly applied to the constantly evolving
a ay of digital a estat o s
array o d g ta manifestations.
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

37. Use cases from t e retailer
o the eta e
Work See Inside Printable
(ISTC) File PDF with Spine +
(Identifier?) Front + Back Jacket
(Identifier?)
Signed Deluxe Trade Trade Mass Large Alternate Spoken Spoken ePub Enhanced Text to
Limited Edition Hardcover Paper Market Print Language Word Word Edition ePub Speech
Edition (EAN) Edition Edition Edition Edition Edition CD MP3 (EAN) Edition Authorized
(EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN) (EAN?)
World World World World World World World World World World World World
Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights Rights
Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification Clarification
(if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required) (if required)
US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor US Distributor
of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record of Record
Established Established Established Established Established Established Established Established Established Established Established
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc
37

38. Use cases from t e retailer
o the eta e
 Have one master record with rich
metadata for the work, with listings of
formats as separate, thus reducing the
number of title records that would need
b f l d h ld d
to be imported.
 To be bl
T b able to li k all the manifestations
link ll h if i
of a work across publishers.
◦ (Thi would only b useful f public d
(This ld l be f l for bli domain titl
i titles
that might be published by multiple companies.)
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc

39. And finally, ISNI
d a y, S
 ISNI – International Standard Name
Identifier
 A Creator (Contributor) Identifier
( )
 Purpose
◦ Will enable the identification of Public Identities of parties
involved throughout the media content industries in the
creation, production, management, and content distribution
chains.
◦ May include authors, illustrators, artists, editors,
publishers, collecting agencies, community groups, service
organizations, fictional characters, etc.

40. Getting involved with BISG and
identifiers
id tifi
 BISAC Identification Committee: A
center of excellence
◦ ISBN implementation
◦ ISBN-13
◦ Identifiers for e-books
◦ International Standard Text Code (ISTC)
◦ ISNI
◦ GDSN
© 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc 40

41. © 2010, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. 41