I posted on Wednesday that, as part of the Book Industry Study Group's "Making Information Pay" conference, I'd be giving a brief update of a metadata project we have been part of the last three months. The meeting took place yesterday, and I've posted the presentation materials on Slideshare (something that has become more difficult in the time since the service got bought by LinkedIn.)
The study included in-depth interviews with over 30 supply-chain participants as well as online surveys conducted in both the United States and Canada. The project builds upon prior best-practice work done by BISG, NISO and OCLC.
The interviews uncovered several consistent themes, including:
- Supplier (publisher) concerns with added or modified metadata
- Recepient reports that metadata quality still needs work
- Separate feeds for physical and digital products
- Significant "forking" in using the ONIX standard
- A slow start for ONIX 3.0 migration in the U.S.
We're working now on the final report, which will include at least five opportunities to improve metadata processes and five other initiatives that could help the supply chain "future-proof" its use of metadata. These ten recommendations are summarized in the MIP presentation.
In addition to the report, BISG anticipates scheduling follow-on discussions to help explore both the findings and recommendations. A calendar for those efforts is being developed; I'll post information here as it becomes available.
