Setting the bar so you can raise it.

Standards are an essential part a healthy supply chain. BookNet Canada consults on and develops standards with the Canadian book industry’s needs in mind.

We work on four kinds of standards:

1. EDI
2. Product Identifiers
3. Subject and Other Classification Schemes
4. ONIX

There are more industry standards, though.

And we support the use of these standards in the Canadian industry through Bibliographic Certification.

EDI

What It Is:
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) makes sharing orders, shipment notices and invoices fast and easy. In order to have such a system we need a standardized way of communicating. Enter the Canadian Book Industry Standards and Communications (CBISAC) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Standards. These standards ensure that store POS/inventory and distribution systems can read the same files with accuracy.

BNC’s Role:
BookNet Canada maintains the CBISAC EDI Document Specifications for the Canadian book industry. BookNet Canada’s EDI Committee meets regularly to define new documents, update existing specifications, and assess the impact of EDI on business processes. If you would like to discuss EDI standards and get set up drop us a line.

Resources:

• Canadian EDI Document Standards
• EDI Implementation Guides

Product Identifiers

What It Is:

The product identifier for books is the ISBN (International Standard Book Number). Every title published in North America after 2007 must have an ISBN-13 that identifies it as a unique book product available to be bought and sold.

But there are several other identifiers, including EAN, UPC, GTIN, ISNI, and ISTC that are of interest to the Canadian Book Supply Chain.

BNC’s Role:
BookNet Canada provides education and information on how different product identifiers are used in the book supply chain.

Resources:

• ISBN
• BNC 101: What is an ISTC?

Subject and Other Classification Schemes

What It Is:
Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) Classification Schemes are used to communicate subject information about a book.  This information gets communicated through your bibliographic data files and is used to help identify where the book should be shelved in a physical store and how it can be found via search or browse in an online store, catalogue or other discovery platform.

BISAC Classification Schemes come in three forms: BISAC Subject Headings, BISAC Merchandising Themes, and BISAC Regional Themes.

BNC’s Role:
BookNet Canada sits on the BISAC subjects committee where decisions are made about what new codes are needed and if old ones should be discontinued. The Canadian Bibliographic Committee works at creating Canadian specific BISAC subjects and regional themes. If you would like to discuss any of the Classification Schemes send us an email.

Resources:

• BookNet Canada guidelines for the Canadian market.
• Check out our blog post on BISAC Classification Schemes.
• BISG/BISAC Classification Schemes
• Thema Classification Schemes

ONIX

What It Is:
ONIX for Books is the international standard for representing and communicating book industry product information in electronic form.

ONIX stands for ONline Information eXchange and is an XML-based language used for computer-to-computer communication. It provides an accurate description of the product.

ONIX is a way of tagging information about your books — such as the ISBN, title, contributor, description, price, and availability. All of this data is needed to support the sale and marketing of your books in the supply chain.

BNC’s Role:
BookNet Canada runs the Canadian Bibliographic Committee and  sits on the international ONIX Committee that makes decisions about how to improve and expand ONIX standards to keep up with the needs of the industry. If you would like to discuss changes to ONIX send us an email We have built quality reports into BiblioShare for quick and easy feedback, we’ve developed many resources to help you navigate ONIX, and are on-hand to troubleshoot things with you. 

Resources:

• BNC 101: What Is ONIX?
• What’s new in ONIX and Bibliographic Standards
• Overview from EDItEUR
• Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Product Metadata Best Practices for Senders and Receivers
• BNC ONIX Guidebook
• BNC’s ONIX Information
• Canadian Bibliographic Standard
• ONIX Code Lists

Other Standards

BookNet Canada monitors and participates in the development of several other industry standards. These include:

• Accessibility Standards
• EPUB
• GDSN
• SAN and GLN

Bibliographic Certification

Canadian Bibliographic Certification tests a publisher’s or distributor’s production file for structure, content and other criteria.

Certification criteria is based on the three levels of the Canadian Bibliographic Standard and feedback from data aggregators.

Let Us Know How We Can Help

We want to help you with metadata and standards. If you have questions about industry standards and our resources haven’t answered them, please email us so that we can lend a hand.