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BookNet Canada

Home
Blog
Overview of all products
SalesData
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Tom Richardson
June 16, 2010
Ebooks, Standards & Metadata

ISBNs: It’s 11PM—Do You Know Where Your Product Records Are?

Tom Richardson
June 16, 2010
Ebooks, Standards & Metadata

You’d think you were at Market Day in Ganges there’s such PANDEMONIUM out there. Everyone’s talking about Product Identifiers—live twitter discussions, position papers staked by major organizations, and the BISG has no less than two dedicated industry groups (maybe three) discussing issues around ISBNs, e-Books and ISTC to make sure that their supply chain perspective is heard.

I’m lucky enough to be able to participate in some of the BISG discussion, quietly like a good Canadian will, but I know the Canadian supply chain wants to know what to do. Right now, the answer is participate. But maybe to give a flavour of what’s being talked about here’s some jottings from a recent meeting—points that came up that are being thought about, things that aren’t answered yet:

  • Using product identifiers in a closed system like Kindle or Nook, vs open systems where the identifier is actually traded to identify the product. What’s the best practice for each?

  • Libraries need to be able to buy for specific e-readers that are supported by them institutionally and are unable to because of a lack of unique identification and data. Library wholesalers are developing kludges to add the missing link.

  • Sales tracking: if nothing else, amalgamated sales for Bestseller lists? How can this info be combined… (ISTC discussions ensue)

  • Identifier BLOAT! No, wait: there’s DATA bloat too… (think about it: they are different and both real). It all costs and costs too much—this is about driving sales (or decreasing costs)

  • One record = One Product Identifier OR Hierarchical data? Who says we have to repeat everything all the time, endlessly just because version 2.8 of Dirty Sock Reader was released?

  • Sales rights: the responsibilities of 3rd parties to not sell when they shouldn’t, and the responsibilities of publishers to inform others about a book’s status.

  • Are we just building a giant disconnect? What is a product anyway—it really isn’t that clear in the digital supply chain…

  • GDSN / DOI / ISTC: Does DOI belong on this list? Discuss!

You get the idea. This is important stuff even if it tastes like thick dust. BookNet Canada is Canada’s publishing supply chain organization—but we answer to your pulls on it. This is how your business does business with other businesses—EDI, your records, your royalties are all wrapped up here. If what’s happening doesn’t support your need to communicate with your business partners, let us know.

LINKS

Twitter hashmark (live, Friday noon EST): #ISBNhour
Dec 2009 position paper from BIC
Feb 2010 position paper from the Int ISBN Agency
Book Industry Study Group (BISG)

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BookNet Canada is a non-profit organization that develops technology, standards, and education to serve the Canadian book industry. Founded in 2002 to address systemic challenges in the industry, BookNet Canada supports publishing companies, booksellers, wholesalers, distributors, sales agents, industry associations, literary agents, media, and libraries across the country.

 

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BookNet Canada acknowledges that its operations are remote and our colleagues contribute their work from the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, the Anishnawbe, the Haudenosaunee, the Wyandot, the Mi’kmaq, the Ojibwa of Fort William First Nation, the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations (which includes the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomie), and the Métis, the original nations and peoples of the lands we now call Beeton, Brampton, Guelph, Halifax, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vaughan, and Windsor. We endorse the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (PDF) and support an ongoing shift from gatekeeping to spacemaking in the book industry.