BISAC Regional Themes
Version 1.0 - January 2006

Introduction | Organization & Structure | ONIX Considerations | BISAC Regional Themes

Introduction

The BISAC Regional Themes Version 1.0  were developed by the BISAC Subject Codes Committee of the Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG).

While updating the BISAC Merchandising Themes in early 2005, the BISAC Subject Codes Committee saw a need to further expand the regions within that list. Because there were so many regions to add, the committee decided to break them out of the Merchandising Themes altogether and develop a new list of just regions.

Using BISAC Regional Themes

The BISAC Regional Themes are optional codes that can be used in conjunction with a Subject Code or with a Subject Code and a Merchandising Theme, but should not be used on their own, e.g., in lieu of a Subject Code. The codes can be used for fiction or non-fiction.  When selecting a code, the editor should use the most general applicable code without using multiple specific codes. For example, if a book focuses on New England, it should be assigned New England rather than a code for each of the six states that comprise New England. A general rule is to use the most inclusive code. However, the BISAC Subject Codes Committee makes no recommendation as to how many codes should be used. While a book does not need a separate code for continent, country, state and city, if the desired city is included on the list, it should be coded for each location appropriate to the book.

Examples

Cry, The Beloved Country - 3.5.7.0.0.0.0 Republic of South Africa

New Orleans: A Photographic Tour - 4.0.1.5.4.1.0 New Orleans

One Hundred and One Beautiful Small Towns of Italy - 1.5.3.0.0.0.0 Italy

Robert Frost’s New England - 4.0.1.1.0.0.0 New England

Organization and Structure

The BISAC Regional Themes are organized hierarchically and structured so that countries and/or cities can easily be inserted into the hierarchy as necessary without having to completely renumber the entire list. 

The hierarchy was structured as follows:

Level 1 – Continents

Level 2 – Subcontinents

Level 3 – Countries

Level 4 – Subcountry regions

Level 5 – States, Provinces, Counties

Level 6 – City, Town, Area

Level 7 – Borough, Neighborhood, District

A number was assigned to each continent and to each region within. All regions were assigned a 7-part code in the format of X.X.X.X.X.X.X (where X equals a numeric value). In the code schema, 0 (zero) acts as an undefined value, rather than a number. It is a placeholder value that implies someday there might be a number in that position for that specific region. The structure allows for the continent or country of a lower-level place to be easily identified.

In selecting the place names to be included on the list, the one thing agreed on by the committee was that we could not cover every existing region or city.  We included all states (U.S.) and tried to include all countries. In determining what to include in the lower levels, we looked to those places that have the most books written about them. As when adding new Subject Codes, we observed the “100-book rule”, i.e., there must exist at least 100 titles about the addition in question. This, of course, made the list somewhat U.S.-centric as we found there to be more titles related to very specific areas in the U. S. than to very specific areas elsewhere in the world (i.e., very few specific areas around the world have more than 100 titles about that area). Going forward, the committee is open to adding to future versions of the list all places that might be overlooked, provided they meets the 100-book rule. We will also revise the list in accordance with the ever-changing world map. In addition, we may find a need to further expand the list once we begin work on the BISAC to BIC mapping project.

ONIX Considerations

After reviewing the BISAC Regional Themes, the BISAC Metadata Committee agreed that the identifier for the regional theme will be added to code list 27 (subject scheme identifier code) of Issue 5 of the ONIX Code Lists. In ONIX, the region code would be added to the additional subject composite (PR.13.9-13.13). It is important to note that the proposed regions refer to the content (or subject) of the book, not to the author’s hometown or affiliated country. Those fields already exist in PR.8 (the contributor composite) and utilize code lists 49 or 91.

If a publisher chooses to utilize the new BISAC Regional Themes, a field would need to be added to their current database structure. Like Merchandising Themes, the regions should be stored in a field separate from the Subject Codes. Each code (Subject Code, Merchandising Theme and Regional Theme) should be stored in its own field.

• Europe

• Asia

• Africa

• North America

• South America

• Australasia, Oceania

• Antarctica

 ã 2006, Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

 Please note that the BISAC Regional Themes are governed by the following copyright notice.

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