[Web4lib] Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow: Free White Paper from NISO and OCLC

[Cynthia Hodgson]

NISO and OCLC announce the publication of a white paper on "Streamlining
Book Metadata Workflow," written by consultant Judy Luther (President,
Informed Strategies), that analyzes the current state of metadata creation,
exchange, and use throughout the book supply chain.

With the number of book formats multiplying and the amount of digital
content growing rapidly, the metadata required to support the discovery,
sale, and use of content by a global audience is increasing exponentially.
At the same time, economic pressures on all stakeholders in the supply
chain--from publishers to wholesalers to booksellers to metadata suppliers
and to librarians--present greater challenges for providing quality and
comprehensive metadata at every point in the cycle.

Through interviews with over 30 industry representatives, Luther has created
a book metadata exchange map illustrating the workflow and metadata exchange
and has identified opportunities for eliminating redundancies and making the
entire process more economical.

"The ability to efficiently transmit and correctly display metadata that
supports decisions to acquire books has made the underlying structure and
exchange of metadata even more important to the success of the publisher
supply chain and libraries," explained Luther.

The white paper was commissioned by NISO and OCLC as a follow-up to the
Symposium for Publishers and Librarians held by OCLC on March 18-19, 2009 to
discuss book metadata. Both organizations share the vision of an environment
where data can be exchanged seamlessly between different systems and both
are focused on reducing the costs of this exchange for all participants in
the supply chain of data and content.

"The white paper illustrates how effectively both publishers and libraries
have implemented their respective standards of ONIX for Books and MARC, but
also shows how silos have grown up around the two standards," stated Todd
Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "There are definite opportunities for
breaking down these silos and both communities are eager to find better
methods for interoperability and streamlining their operations."

"Efficiently and effectively reusing metadata from publishers supports the
continued relevance and success of library bibliographic control going
forward," said Karen Calhoun, Vice President, OCLC WorldCat and Metadata
Services. "It is important that libraries, publishers, and metadata
suppliers collaborate in the ongoing development and evolution of best
practices and standards in support of Web-scale services."

"Current publisher and library workflows and methodologies for metadata
creation and maintenance are not sustainable. It is crucial to the future of
publishers and libraries that we move toward collaborative, creative, and
networked use of publisher and library metadata for the benefit of multiple
user communities," said Renee Register, Senior Product Manager, OCLC
WorldCat and Metadata Services.

NISO and OCLC plan to hold ongoing events to continue the dialog among
publishers, librarians, and metadata suppliers. Specific actions identified
in the report will be pursued with the establishment of working groups to
develop recommended practices or standards as needed.
Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow is available on the NISO Web site at:
www.niso.org/publications/white_papers/. Information about the Symposium for
Publishers and Librarians is available on the OCLC Web site at:
www.oclc.org/publisher-symposium/.


Cynthia Hodgson
NISO Technical Editor Consultant
National Information Standards Organization
Email: chodgson at niso.org
Phone: 301-654-2512