2. What is ONIX?
ONIX stands for ONline Information EXchange
There are over 200 data elements
ONIX is a metadata standard that publishers use to distribute
electronic information about their books, and all other
materials publishers produce
This electronic information is distributed to wholesalers, brick
and mortar stores, online retailers, and anyone else involved in
the sale or distribution of books
Book information can be communicated between different
organizations with different technical infrastructures
ONIX is not a database, but uses XML to organize data storage
3. Why use ONIX?
ONIX provides richer book data online (hence the name)
There are widely varying format requirements for
receiving this data that are used within the book industry
ONIX provides electronic information about the jacket
cover of a physical book (cover design, author
biography, reviews, synopsis, etc.), plus related audio and
video files.
The more information customers have about a book, the
more likely they are to purchase it
4. What does ONIX tell us about a book?
Title
Author
ISBN
Price
Availability
Blurbs, reviews, excerpts
BISAC subject codes
Rights (territorial and copyright)
Licensing
Links to website and book cover images
Code numbers that further describe a product, but won’t spell anything out. These
code numbers are distinct to ONIX (the code lists)
5. The history of ONIX
In 1999, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) collaborated with major
wholesalers, online retailers, and book information service providers to develop ONIX
The goal was to create universal, international format where publishers of all sizes could
exchange information about their books
ONIX for Books 1.0 was published in January 2000
ONIX for Books 2.1, revision 02, was published in 2004, with some minor revisions to
documentation in February 2005
The most current version of ONIX for Books is 3.0, which was released in 2009
ONIX for Books 3.0 handles digital products better than its predecessors
The most recent ONIX Code List is Issue 16, which was released in January 2012
In addition to books, there is also ONIX for Serials and ONIX for Licensing Terms (rights
and usages)
In the future, it is very possible that ONIX will also be used to exchange electronic
information about motion pictures and sound recordings
6. ONIX on the web
OFFICIAL SITES PRACTITIONER SITES
Booknet Canada
EDItEUR (http://www.editeur.org) http://booknetcanada.ca/index.php?
Book Industry Study Group/BISG option=com_content&task=view&id=
153&Itemid=407)
(http://www.bisg.org)
ONIXEDIT
Association of American Publishers (http://www.onixedit.com/en/Home.
(www.publishers.org) aspx)
Firebrand Technologies
Book Industry Communication / BIC (http://www.firebrandtech.com/)
(http:www.bic.org.uk) The ONIX_Implement e-mail list
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ONI
X_IMPLEMENT/)
7. Companies that use ONIX for Books
Amazon.com
Baker and Taylor
Barnes and Noble
Google
Ingram Book Company
Library of Congress
McGraw Hill
Nielson Bookscan
Simon & Schuster
8. How ONIX for Books works
Two standards – Level 1 or Level 2
Level 1 is targeted to publishers who have not established an in-house database of
product information
Level 2 is targeted to publishers who feel that Level 1 data elements are not adequate
ONIX defines a list of data fields about a book and how to send that data in an “ONIX
message”
Most data elements in ONIX consist of text, but others are multimedia, such as images
and audio files
An ONIX message consists of a set of data elements defined by tags and is written in XML.
An ONIX message also conforms to a specific template, or set of rules, also known as
ONIX DTD.
ONIX DTD defines how to order the data elements, and how the elements are
interrelated.
9. HOW ONIX WORKS
An ONIX message is transmitted across
the Internet the other data is, as an e-
mail attachment or by FTP.
Once an ONIX message is received, an
XML software application and the ONIX
DTD verify the data’s integrity. After
that, the receiver translates the data
into what someone sees on a webpage
(how much someone sees is strictly up
to the retailer.)
10. ONIX schema definitions
3 schema options are available for ONIX 3.0
The recommended options are the ISO standard RelaxNG (RNG) schema
language, or the W3C (XSD) schema language
These two schemas allow the most effective validity checking
A DTD option is also available
All 3 of these schema options support both reference names and short tags
for ONIX data elements
All 3 can be downloaded from http://www.editeur.org
11. ONIX in action
Source taken from :
http://www.amazon.com/Get-Van-
Road-Black-
Edition/dp/1880985764/ref=sr_1_1?s=
books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334198873&sr=
1-1
12. How every ONIX message begins
<?XML version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE ONIXMessage SYSTEM
"http://www.editeur.org/onix/2.1/02/reference/onix-international.dtd">
<ONIXMessage>
<Header>
<FromEANNumber>123456789</FromEANNumber>
<FromCompany>Janet’s Publishing Company</FromCompany>
<FromPerson>Janet Leu</FromPerson>
<FromEmail>janet@janetspublishingco.com</FromEmail>
<SentDate>20120413</SentDate>
<DefaultLanguageOfText>eng</DefaultLanguageOfText>
<DefaultPriceTypeCode>02</DefaultPriceTypeCode>
<DefaultCurrencyCode>EUR</DefaultCurrencyCode>
<DefaultClassOfTrade>General</DefaultClassOfTrade>
</Header>
13. More ONIX in action
<Product>
<Title>
<TitleType>01</TitleType>
<TitleText>Get in the Van</TitleText>
<Subtitle>On the Road With Black Flag</Subtitle>
</Title>
<MainSubject>
<CorporateBodyAsSubject>Black Flag (musical group) </CorporateBodyAsSubject>
<SubjectHeadingText>Punk rock musicians</SubjectHeadingText>
<SubjectHeadingText>Punk rock music – California – History and criticism</SubjectHeadingText>
<SubjectHeadingText>Punk rock music – Social aspects </SubjectHeadingText>
</MainSubject>
<Contributor>
<PersonalName>Henry Rollins</PersonalName>
</Contributor>
14. Publisher’s descriptions in ONIX
<Main Description>
<DescriptiveDetail>As a member of the seminal punk band Black Flag, Henry Rollins kept detailed tour diaries
that form the basis of Get in the Van. Rollins's observations range from the wry to the raucous in this blistering
account of a six-year career with the band - a time marked by crazed fans, vicious cops, near-starvation, substance
abuse, and mind numbing all-night drives. Rollins decided to revise this edition by adding a wealth of new
photographs, a new foreword, and an afterword to include some "where-are-they-now" information on the people
featured in the book. This new edition includes 40 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs from
Rollins's private collection and show flyers by artist Raymond Pettibon. Called "a soul-frying experience not to be
undertaken by lightweights" by Wired magazine, Get in the Van perfectly embodies what one critic called the
"secular gospel" of one of punk and post-punk's most respected and controversial figures.
.</DescriptiveDetail>
<TextTypeCode>18</TextTypeCode>
<AudienceCode>01</AudienceCode>
<AudienceRange>16</AudienceRange>
<ReviewQuote>A day-by-day journal from the journals of the ever-volatile Henry Rollins on tour from 1981 to
1986 that captures the irrationality and violence of punk specifically, and the stresses of being on the road in a rock
band generally.</ReviewQuote>
</MainDescrption>
15. The rest of the record, part 1
<ProductForm>Electronic book</ProductForm>
<ProductFormDescription>12793 kb</ProductFormDescription>
<PublisherName>2.13.61 Publications</PublisherName>
<PublicationDate>
<PublishingDate>20090501</PublishingDate>
<YearFirstPublished>1994</YearFirstPublished>
<CityOfPublication>Los Angeles</CityOfPublication>
<CountryOfPublication>USA</CountryofPublication>
</PublicationDate>
<Illustrations>
<IllustrationOType>01</IllustrationType>
<NumberOf Illustrations>200</NumberOfIllustrations>
</Illustration>
16. The rest of the record, part 2
<ProductIdentifier>
<PublisherProductNo>978-2-880-98582-3</PublisherProductNo>
<ProductIDType>03</ProductIDType>
<EditionNumber>2</EditionNumber>
<EditionStatement>Kindle Edition</EditionStatement>
<EditionTypeCode>NED</EditionTypeCode>
</ProductIdentifier>
<ProductWebsiteLink>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004GXBA06/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_g351_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVP
DKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-
2&pf_rd_r=0DT6JVA4RK6KXTYNABME&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846</ProductWebsiteLink>
<Language>English</Language>
<LanguageCode>eng</LanguageCode>
<CountryCode>US</CountryCode>
<RelatedProduct>Get In the Van, original recording reissued, 2003</RelatedProduct>
<RelationCode>06</RelationCode>
<ProductIDTypeCode>AC</ProductIDTypeCode>
</Product>
17. Recommended reading
Committee on Cataloging: Description and Accesss
http://www.libraries.psu.edu/tas/jca/ccda/tf-onix3.html
Distinguishing Content from Carrier: The RDA/ONIX Framework for Resource
Categorization http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january07/dunsire/01dunsire.html
EDItEUR http://www.editeur.org/
Identifier Interoperability
http://www.digitalpreservationeurope.eu/publications/briefs/identifier-
interoperability.pdf
ISBD and the Semantic Web
http://leo.cilea.it/index.php/jlis/article/viewFile/4536/4408
Mapping Bibliographic Metadata.
http://www.nela.camp9.org/Resources/Documents/JeanGodby-
MappingBibliographicMetadata.pdf
18. More recommended reading
Metadata Demystified: A Guide For Publishers
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Metadata_Demystified.pdf
ONIX DOI Metadata for Monographic Products
http://www.medra.org/stdoc/en/041110_monographic_doi_metadata_p.p
df
ONIX for Books 3.0: Best Practices for Implementation
http://www.slideshare.net/bisg/bisg-webcast-onix-for-books-v30-
implemention
ONIX For Libraries http://www.bic.org.uk/files/pdfs/onixlibrep.pdf
RDA/ONIX Framework for Resource
Categorizationhttp://www.loc.gov/marc/marbi/2007/5chair10.pdf
19. Bibliography
ANKO Publishing Software Limited. A Practical Guide to Implementing ONIX. (2005).
Retrieved from
http://www.anko.ie/Downloads/Anko_Implementing_onix_software.pdf
ANKO Publishing Software Limited. A Sample ONIX Message. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.anko.ie/Pages/Articles/sample_onix_message.html
Booknet Canada. Best Practices for E-books in ONIX. Tom Richardson. November
3, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/website
Catalogablog. ONIX. David (last name unknown). March 2, 2005. Retrieved from
http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/2005/03/onix.html
EDItEUR: International Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.editeur.org/
EDItEUR. (2012). ONIX Codelists, Issue 16. Retrieved from
http://www.editeur.org/93/Release-3.0-Downloads/
EDItEUR. (2012). ONIX for Books: Product Information Format Specification, Release
3.0 revision 1, January 2012. Retrieved from http://www.editeur.org/93/Release-3.0-
Downloads/
Notas del editor
Now is a good time to show the ONIX documentation….3.0 and the latest Code List, and the sample ONIX record.