Metadata Resources
The BISG Metadata Committee recommends these resources for their value to book industry professionals. This list is a work in progress and we welcome suggestions; if you have other interests or learning needs that you would like us to consider, let us know! Have a resource you love but don’t see it here? Fill out our suggestion form so we can add it.
BISG also regularly features metadata content in our weekly newsletter, Making Information Pay. Subscribe to stay up-to-date on the latest BISG and book industry news!
The BISG Metadata Committee recommends these resources for their value to book industry professionals. This list is a work in progress and we welcome suggestions; if you have other interests or learning needs that you would like us to consider, let us know! Have a resource you love but don’t see it here? Fill out our suggestion form so we can add it.
BISG also regularly features metadata content in our weekly newsletter, Making Information Pay. Subscribe to stay up-to-date on the latest BISG and book industry news!
The Metadata Committee has produced content and programming to help educate the industry. You can view all our available content and programming on BISG’s Knowledge Center. Below is a selection of metadata content we'd like to highlight.
Reports, Papers & Guides
BISG's Best Practices for Product Metadata
Pat Payton, Sam Dempsey & Richard Stark | June 2015
A flagship product, this guide is currently being updated by our Metadata Best Practices Working Group. We expect to release the new edition in early 2026.
Webinars & Educational Programming
BISG’s Metadata Basics 101: Overview of Book Metadata
Claire Holloway & Ralph Coviello | September 2021
BISG’s Metadata Basics 102: ONIX
Caroline Hayes & Tom Richardson | October 2021
BISG’s Metadata Basics 103: Internationalizing Your Metadata
Graham Bell & Chris Saynor | November 2021
BISG's Transitioning from ONIX 2.1 to 3.0
Graham Bell | May 2020
These are outside metadata resources curated and reccommended by the BISG Metadata Committee.
New to metadata? Start here.
EDItEUR’s ONIX overview
A high-level exec briefing
Ingram’s The Basics of Book Metadata and Keywords
A highly-approachable guide to the basics
Booksmarts Podcast, Episode 8: Everything You Wanted to Know About Keywords
Joshua Tallent's helpful guide
Nielsen Book’s The Importance of Metadata for Discovery and Sales
Blog Posts & Newsletters
EDItEUR’s mailing list for general news of EDItEUR’s activities
To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to news-from+subscribe@editeur.groups.io
EDItEUR's mailing list for ONIX: onix+subscribe@groups.io
For posing general questions about ONIX to the community. This mailing list is EDItEUR’s official channel for announcements about updates to the THEMA standard.
EDItEUR's mailing list for THEMA: thema+subscribe@groups.io
This mailing list is EDItEUR’s official channel for announcements about updates to the THEMA standard.
Books
Metadata
Marcia Zeng & Jian Qin
A great textbook view of the entirety of metadata, aimed at information science
Metadata
Jeffrey Pomerantz
The Organization of Information
Arlene G. Taylor & Daniel N. Joudrey
Podcasts
The Digital Publishing Podcast
Simon Mellins & Simon Holt
Occasional podcast focusing on production and accessibility
BookSmarts Podcast
Joshua Tallent
Reports & Papers
EDItEUR’s ONIX code list browser
EDItEUR’s ONIX Implementation and Best Practice Guide
The latest version is 3.1.2 DOI:10.4400/ejtx as of 6/18/2025
EDItEUR’s ONIX Specification
The latest version is 3.1.2 DOI:10.4400/zrzq as of 6/18/2025
EDItEUR’s Application Notes
Covers specific ONIX topics including accessibility, AI, audiobooks, block updates, commodity codes (tariff codes), e-books and digital content, identifiers, lifecycle dates, multilingual metadata, pricing, safety requirements, sales rights, weights and dimensions, XML validation, and more.
Nielsen Book's The Importance of Metadata for Discovery and Sales
National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
Searching NISO's website provides a wealth of metadata content
Webinars & Educational Programming
BookNet Canada's Webinar Archive
EDItEUR has a large collection of useful webinar recordings:
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- EDItEUR webinar on EUDR (40 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Block updates (35 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Collections (25 mins) (aka BISG Metadata 106)
- EDItEUR webinar on Collections (advanced) (30 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on embedded HTML (30 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Languages (30 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Open access (20 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Multiple Markets (15 mins)
- EDItEUR webinar on Works in ONIX (35 mins) (aka BISG Metadata 109)
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