With the growing list of ebooks being made available to libraries for patron loan, we’ve seen a lot of experimentation with different publisher payment models, from loan limitations to different up-front pricing for libraries with unlimited loan licensing. If your publishing house has opted for this second option — or even if you have the same pricing for consumer and library purchase, but you want to be clear about this to the supply chain — how do you indicate this in your ONIX record?
What's in a Name?
Okay, we are data nerds. Data junkies, even, if you will. We spend time (a lot of time) looking at and thinking about how to make data more accessible, both for people and for machines.
Sometimes issues crop up in the data that are complicated and nuanced and take time to unravel to get the data flowing smoothly again. This isn’t one of those issues. This is an easy check that you can do on your own records that could make a big difference in making sure your data can be processed and retrieved correctly.
If You Build It, They Will Build
As the book industry focuses on reaching web-enabled readers, there’s an increasing need for technologies, like apps and APIs, that can be built quickly and altered often. This is why last month, a week before BookExpo America, New York played host to a significant publishing event: the Publishing Hackathon!
Introducing BNC's BiblioShare Webform
In keeping with the launch-happy theme we’ve got going around here these days, we have another exciting product to send your way! BookNet Canada has launched BiblioShare Webform, an easy-to-use web tool that allows small operations to create and manage book metadata, without messing around with complex ONIX files.
Bullish on Content APIs
How do you make your content available to all those new mobile devices? How about linking your Content Management System with software X? What about linking your content more closely with your metadata? Perhaps the overall question is how do you make your content agile? There are numerous answers to all of these questions, but one way to get your data out there may be to make it available via an API.
Last fall at one of the CMPTO events Pearson did a presentation on some of their newly available content APIs and one or two of the projects being built using their APIs.
Making SalesData Easy on the Eyes
Getting Data Dropped: Support and Update Your Records
BNC BiblioShare has been getting queries from publishers asking why after dropping a record from their ONIX feed it hasn’t disappeared from The 49th Shelf. BiblioShare supplies data to a lot more firms than The 49th Shelf and that list is growing, but we like that you’re paying attention and finding problems in 49thShelf.com. Here’s an explanation straight from your ONIX feed about what’s happening.
Canadian Bookshelf, eh?
If you haven’t already visited, Canadian Bookshelf, I would highly recommend you take a little time to do so. The site itself looks great and there is a plethora of great (Canadian) content already there with more to come. I won’t go into all the features and functions of the site here as you can just go and try it out or read about it on their blog, but I will point out why we like this project in one word: collaboration.
Introducing BNC's WordPress Plugin for BiblioShare
BiblioShare Data Participants...Are You on the List?
The following list of publishers/distributors are all contributing data to, or working on getting their data into, BNC BiblioShare. Are you missing from the list? Have a look here and here and then get in touch with us at biblioshare@booknetcanada.ca to get on the list.
