Hear ye, hear ye! The 2020 edition of the BISAC Subject Headings List is now available for all your classification needs. The updated BISAC subject list is available to purchase and download from BISG (it’s free for their members), but can also be accessed online by anyone for free.
For those of you new to BISAC, here’s a quick rundown: BISAC subject codes are updated each year in response to changing usage in the industry and requests submitted to the BISAC Subject Codes Committee. The best practice is to use the most current version of the BISAC subject list to classify both frontlist and backlist titles. If you’re a publisher, it’s typically a good idea to check with retailers before sending out changes, to ensure that their systems are up-to-date and can accept the new codes.
BISAC changes can come in a few different forms: sometimes, the “literal” or descriptive text of a subject heading changes while the code remains the same. In other cases, codes are made inactive or new codes are added. Looking for the shorthand version? BookNet has your back. Keep reading for an overview of some of the key changes made in the 2020 edition.
Highlights
The 2020 edition includes:
155 new headings (including 12 new cross-reference additions)
123 literal changes to coded headings (including 13 new cross-reference changes)
Two inactivations (three cross-references deleted)
List-wide literal changes
All instances of LGBT were changed to LGBTQ+, resulting in changes in the literals of 38 headings. African American was changed to African American & Black, affecting 19 headings. Hispanic American was replaced by Hispanic & Latino in three headings.
Also of note, BookNet Canada brought forth a proposal to replace the term Native American. The 2020 edition replaces the term Native American with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas where it’s not specifically referring to the United States of America.
New headings
Headings were added in 23 sections, with 62% of new headings added to the FICTION tree. Literals were changed in 25 sections; 21% of these changes were in FICTION and 20% were in SPORTS & RECREATION.
Some of the new headings added to FICTION include:
FICTION / Buddhist
FICTION / Disabilities & Special Needs
FICTION / Multiple Timelines
FICTION / Muslim
FICTION / Own Voices (also added to YOUNG ADULT; intended for works where the main character belongs to an underrepresented or marginalized group and the author is also part of that group)
FICTION / Romance / Rockstars
The 2020 edition also added 90 new headings in the new section FICTION / World Literature. Subjects in this tree are intended for works written by authors commonly identified as being from the country or region specified. They’re not meant to indicate the setting or language (original or translated) of the book. Four headings have been added under FICTION / World Literature / Canada:
FIC089000 FICTION / World Literature / Canada / General
FIC090000 FICTION / World Literature / Canada / Colonial & 19th Century
FIC090020 FICTION / World Literature / Canada / 20th Century
FIC090030 FICTION / World Literature / Canada / 21st Century
In SPORTS & RECREATION, headings were created for: Animal Sports, Martial Arts, Motor Sports, Racket Sports, Water Sports, and Winter Sports. Twenty-five existing headings were moved into these new trees, and seven new headings were added.
Five headings were added to the YOUNG ADULT tree:
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Clean & Nonviolent
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Comics & Graphic Novels / Diversity & Multicultural
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Fantasy / Romance
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Own Voices
YOUNG ADULT FICTION / People & Places / United States / Middle Eastern & Arab America
And finally, six new headings were added to the BUSINESS & ECONOMICS tree.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Careers / Interviewing
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / Social & Behavioral
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Freelance & Self-Employment
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Logistics & Supply Chain
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Workplace Harassment & Discrimination
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Labor (with level 3 headings for General, Unions, and Wages & Compensation)
BookNet products are ready to receive the new BISAC codes as soon as publishers are ready to start using them. The new codes will be available in:
CataList – searchable using quick search and advanced search criteria, filterable in search results, and displayed on any book assigned the new codes in publisher ONIX feeds.
BiblioShare – once data providers begin supplying the new codes to BiblioShare, they’ll be fed out to our products, partner sites, and feeds, and also available through BiblioShare services like BiblioSimple. The BISAC to Thema Translator will be updated to include BISAC 2020 to Thema 1.4 as soon as BISG publishes an updated mapping, likely February 2021.
SalesData – the new BISAC codes will be rolled out into the site later in 2021. You'll be able to run reports utilizing the new code list as long as the codes are being provided by data providers, publishers, and distributors to our bibliographic data partner, Bowker Books in Print.
Research – the new BISAC codes will be excluded from our release of The Canadian Book Market 2020 (coming soon!) as there will be little to no data yet, but we plan to include these new codes into new sections of the report in future editions.
Of course, all of this depends on publishers starting to use the new codes. The sooner they’re in regular use, the more data we’ll be able to make available. As of January, we hope to have more information from retailers on when they’ll begin accepting and utilizing the new codes. Stay posted!
Featuring River in an Ocean: Essays on Translation edited by Nuzhat Abbas.