1. Discovering online book content:
BISG’s BookDROP
ALA Chicago, July 10 2009
Michael Healy, Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group

2. What are the goals of BookDROP?
 To enable online book content to be discovered,
browsed, searched and distributed in a standardized
way
 To allow publishers to manage the quality and
availability of their content
 To achieve these objectives using defined HTTP
transactions between a publisher’s digital archive
and the websites of their syndication partners

3. How was BookDROP developed?
 Work started by the Association of American
Publishers’ Digital Issues Working Group
 Project Brief and Preliminary Requirements were
developed by AAP
 Work transferred to BISG in July 2007
 BISG Digital Standards Committee established
 Wide industry participation: booksellers, search
engines, etc.

4. Who helped create BookDROP?
• AAP • McGraw-Hill
• ABA • Metacomet Systems
• Barnes & Noble • Microsoft
• BookNet Canada • NACS
• Bridgeport National Bindery
• O’Reilly Media
• CBA International
• Oxford University Press
• Copyright Clearance Center
• • Pearson
Digital Library Federation
• Google • Penguin Group
• GS1 • Quality Solutions
• Hachette Book Group • R.R. Bowker
• Harcourt • Random House
• HarperCollins • Simon & Schuster
• IDPF • Workman Publishing

5. The use cases supported
 Get number of phrase  Enumerate book text
matches in Archive  Browse by context pages
 Search Archive for phrase
 Browse by sample pages
 Search Book for phrase
 Get full-page media
 Enumerate Archive
 Get thumbnail media
 Enumerate book  Get highlighted page media
information
 Enumerate book page
images
 Enumerate ONIX
information

6. Development schedule
 Technical specification finalized - June 2008
 Prototyping: July-August 2008
 Prototyping partners: publishers, syndication
partners, and digital repositories
 BISG Board of Directors approval: September 2008
 Standard published: December 2008

7. Further information
 www.bisg.org/committees/digitalstandards.html
 Briefing document
 Requirements specification
 Technical specification

8. Thank you.
Michael Healy
michael@bisg.org
646 336 7141