BISAC Committees

Metadata Committee

The Metadata Committee has been deeply involved in the development of both national and international product metadata standards for many years. The Committee oversaw the development and maintenance of the EDI X-12 832 Message standard (and continues to do so) while that was the primary means of transmitting product metadata in the North American market. In addition to EDI X-12 832, the Metadata Committee also oversees the ONIX standard in our market and has the responsibility for the continued development and maintenance of ONIX for Books.

Current Metadata Initiatives

• Product Data Certification Program
  BISG's Product Data Certification Program (PDCP) is a voluntary program that enables publishers (and certain other organizations) to submit files of product information to the Book Industry Study Group and have those files evaluated objectively against clearly defined criteria. All organizations participating in the program will receive feedback on the information they supply. Those that meet the criteria for quality data content and timeliness will be certified by BISG as Quality Information Providers.
  
  It is not the intent of the PDCP to replace any measures already in place between individual trading partners to evaluate product information. Instead, it will seek to put in place agreed upon criteria for measuring data quality and a transparent process for evaluating and acknowledging it. (See also Product Metadata Best Practices.)
   

• ONIX (Online Information Exchange)
  ONIX is a standard format that publishers can use to distribute electronic information about their books to wholesale, e-tail and retail booksellers, other publishers, and anyone else involved in the sale of books. Click here to view and download the latest release of ONIX -- version 3.0. (See also ONIX Users Directory.)
   

Metadata Committee Chairperson

Richard Stark

Manager, Content & Category Development

Barnes & Noble, Inc.

bisac_metadata@bisg.org