Presentation at the 8th Annual BISG/NISO Changing Standards Landscape Forum at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference on June 27, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV. Julie Morris (BISG) presenting on Thema: The new, global subject classification scheme for books. Event info (and other event slides) here: http://www.niso.org/news/events/2014/alaannual/2014nisobisgforum/
11. Discovery: an example
11Copyright 2014, The Book Industry Study Group
Five Billion Years of Solitude:
The Search for Life Among the
Stars
by Lee Billings (Current, 2013)
Cosmos
by Carl Sagan
(Random House, 1980)
Welcome, thank you, going to talk about Thema…
My bio.
Our agenda is to talk about what Thema is, and why it is relevant to the book industry, in North America and beyond. Hopefully we’ll have time at the end for a discussion.
So, I will seek to give convey by the end what Thema is, and why you should care …
Let’s break this down in to two parts- first, what is thema?
Thema is a new global subject code scheme meant to provide an international standard for how publishers, booksellers, and others describe book content.
used for both print and digital books
intended for use by all members of the book supply chain.
It is the only international standard for subject classification of books.
Going to talk more about Thema as a standard more in detail, but first, let’s take a step back and look at what a subject category classification scheme is all about, and why it’s important…
In order to talk about Thema and why it’s important, first we need to define subject categories. Let’s take a step back and look at subject categories used in North America now: BISAC, created and maintained by BISG
- About BISG
As Len mentioned in his introduction, BISG is a US-based not-for-profit trade association for the publishing industry, with a global outlook. We are supported by a diverse array of members from all sectors of the supply chain, and are uniquely positioned as the only publishing industry trade association with a horizontal composition.
This positions us well to accomplish our mission, which is to facilitate….(refer to Len’s original presentation) Nowhere is this more evident than in the development and maintenance of the BISAC Subject Headings, > go to next slide to talk about process to update BISAC
Within the three areas Len mentioned, our focus right now is on standards and best practices. Our Standards and Best Practices work is done through several volunteer-led Committees, including the BISAC Subject Codes Committee, which reviews and maintains the BISAC Subject Headings list, and publishes a new edition annually. Much like the composition of our organization, the Committee is made up of volunteers from retail, publishing, distribution, and data management, and technology companies and organizations, to ensure that all members of the supply chain have their views represented in the formation and evolution of the standard. Chaired by Connie Harbison (Baker & Taylor)
>>insert slide showing companies involved in subject codes?
…now a bit more about BISAC
System used to classify what books are about
Developed because a standard was needed for the electronic transfer of subject information that was common among all trading partners
Like Thema, used by all trading partners, and for both print and digital book products
Used throughout North America
Here’s a look at some of the businesses and organizations currently using BISAC to classify book subject content. Many businesses require that publishers use BISAC Subject Headings when submitting data for all formats (physical and digital).
Important to emphasize that the use of BISAC in the book trade industry is ubiquitous, and entrenched in databases and systems of all of the above companies, and more.
Now, why BISAC is important. Subject codes are used throughout the supply chain for a variety of reasons, including…
The headings can be used for transmitting information between trading partners, as search terms in bibliographic databases, as access points for database searching, and as shelving guides.
-Communicates information about the book’s content, allowing users to find books based on common browse categories, lets retailers know where to shelve books, and give publishers mechanisms for making strategic purchasing decisions based on the sales history of a certain category of book, among other things…
Now let’s look at a couple of these in detail…
Let’s take a closer look at how BISAC codes enable book discovery. To borrow an example used by my colleague Len Vlahos, what do these two books have in common? Two different titles, unique authors, two different time periods, two different publishers….
Answer: As you may have guessed, these books share the same subject content!
… and likely share at least one of the same BISAC subject headings. Likely codes:
SCI004000 Astronomy SCI005000 Physics/Astrophysics
So, subject codes help readers find books based on subject matter they are interested in, without having the title, author, or other information of a specific book in mind…
Here you see where the BISAC codes appear in online product information, among other metadata supplied by the publishers. (All of which, we hope, is transmitted through beautifully formed ONIX files)
[Taking a look at BISAC structure] Here you see the BISAC codes themselves, alongside the literal heading.
Let’s take a moment to look quickly at the BISAC structure: a two-tiered structure consisting of a three-character alpha segment (e.g., HIS is used for the HISTORY subject terms) and is followed by a six-character numeric segment, providing a simple, elegant way of communicating a complex set of subject information.
Further granularity is expressed through trees, but each literal within a major subject [EG, SCIENCE] has its own unique, corresponding code, sharing only the same alpha characters at the beginning.
Important to mention that BISAC isn’t the only regional subject code system in use and entrenched within the borders for the country/countries it serves. You are all probably familiar with BIC, developed and maintained by Book Industry Communication, our UK-counterpart and close ally in the world of standards. There are others as well, such as CLIL in France, and so forth…
All of this describes a well-oiled system in place in North America, and beyond. So, back to our original question- why bother with Thema?
Globalization!
We live in a global publishing ecosystem, comprised of international trading partners.
BISAC, like other national subject classification schemes provides a common way of communicating subject category information, within the country it serves
…but, the North American book industry is no longer a self-contained market
buying and selling increasingly happens across borders, not to mention…
Globalization!
More and more, virtually every major publisher and retailer, are operating on a global stage.
Publishers are acquiring rights to books written overseas, and selling to multinational retailers like Amazon, Google, and Kobo.
Those same multinational retailers, now competing in market after market, need to help consumers in different cultures, speaking different languages, find the right book.
search engines are looking for clues in metadata to help users find exactly what they’re seeking
- All of this lays the background for the development of a unified international standard for the classification of books across borders.
- Thema grew out of a project called iBIC
iBIC was guided by a small consortium of national standards groups, and led by Book Industry Communication (BIC).
meant to be an international version of the BIC codes.
The U.S. and Canada (through BISG and BookNet Canada) soon joined the effort, iBIC became Thema.
nearly 20 countries participated in the formation of the standard
EDItEUR, the U.K.-based global standards organization, took ownership of Thema.
A structure was set up for long-term maintenance of the standard, which looks like this:
-Governed by International Steering Committee,
Composed of Review Committee and Technical Committee
- Made up by representatives from various National Groups who have voluntarily joined the effort.
… BISG Thema Working Group, currently Chaired by Kempton Mooney (Formerly Hachette, now Nielsen) forms the U.S. National Group, and reports into the International Steering Committee (Len Vlahos, BISG, sits on Steering Committee; Kempton Mooney, Nielsen, is on Technical Committee)
National Groups include…
The BISG Thema Working Group, currently Chaired by Kempton Mooney (Formerly Hachette, now Nielsen) forms the U.S. National Group, and reports into the International Steering Committee (Len Vlahos, BISG, sits on Steering Committee; Kempton Mooney, Nielsen, is on Technical Committee)
So, what’s so great about Thema?
Creates a common set of codes which can be used across borders, to facilitate ease of communication in an international ecosystem
Reduces confusion caused by langauge, cultural, or other differences among national code lists and multiple mappings
- cuts down on the need to create multiple maps between national/local subject codes
[for what Howard Willows of Nielsen, the original architect of the Thema standard, calls “map-o-rama,”]
-Came from Howard Willows (Nielsen, Thema ISC Chair): represents countries that are participating in Thema.
Who have committed to forming Thema national groups, or are making efforts to implement Thema
Some of the organizations participating in the conversation through representation on national groups, as of June 2014 (also courtesy of Howard Willows)
Information courtesy of Graham Bell, EDItEUR as of June 2014
Through the efforts of these groups, Version 1.0 of Thema was released in November 2013. Sunrise December 2013.
Thema can be implemented NOW! We’ll look more at how in a moment…
At this point, you may be asking yourself, what now? With multiple standards each structured differently, serving the same purpose in different (and now overlapping) markets, where does the U.S. industry go from here?
And more importantly, should I stop using BISAC and start using Thema?
The answer to that is no- not yet, anyway…
The short-term purpose of Thema is not to replace BISAC or any other local subject code schemes (unless the market adopting Thema so desires). Rather, the intent is to create a universal set of descriptors that can map to all others.
The hope is that U.S. publishers will continue to use BISAC, but will also begin to include the appropriate Thema codes for books being sold outside of North America.
While it is possible that Thema will, over time, become the de facto subject code standard worldwide, there is no expectation that U.S. publishers will stop using BISAC in the near future. As we saw earlier, BISAC is entrenched in the North American supply chain, and we don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon.
The BISG Subject Codes Committee will continue to update the BISAC headings list on an annual basis
Meanwhile, our goal is to help the industry begin incorporating Thema codes into their existing systems and databases… (mention each of the efforts)
This shows the BNC BISAC to Thema Translator tool, based on the BISG mapping. Some stats:
95 users have logged in (non-BookNet and non-BISG staff)
27 have asked to be signed up for the BISG newsletter
There have been 558 code lookups
There have been 20 file uploads
(as of June 17, more every day!)
This slide shows how it works…(example) Tool that uses the BISG BISAC to Thema mapping to allow lookup of Thema codes using BISAC entry, either single-code lookup or batch upload (when BISAC are provided, corresponding Thema codes delivered in returned file)
One BISAC code may map to multiple Thema Subjects and Qualifiers
When more than one Thema code is returned, both should be used (BISAC is more specific, Thema uses qualifiers to add granularity while remaining flexible…
To go back to our earlier example, which at this point probably feels like 5 billion years ago, we said the likely BISAC codes used for this title are Astronomy and possibly Physics/Astrophysics
With the BISG mapping, the corresponding Thema codes would be…
This maps pretty easily, with only one code and no qualifiers (this isn’t always the case- let’s look at the structure in more detail to see why…)
Note the levels, added flexibility within Thema
go over what is required and what is optional, for BISAC and Thema (in ONIX)
Using Thema, a book can be classified with only a subject, more than one subject, or with a combination of one or more appropriate qualifiers.
Thema: 20 major subject categories and 6 types of qualifiers
Over 4,500 current codes (subjects + qualifiers)
BISAC: 51 major headings and 3,950 total primary codes (many more primary codes with BISAC, fewer qualifiers) = more specificity in primary code, but less flexibility)
Looking at the structure of individual codes a bit more, we see that…
Subject category codes always begin with a letter
Qualifiers begin with numbers 1-6
All codes are hierarchical in structure, so A is implied in AJCD; and 1D is implied in 1DDB, etc.
To take anther example, probable BISAC headings for the popular novel include…
- note only two BISAC codes are used, where two Thema codes and three qualifiers
Using Thema may involve the use of more codes /qualifiers, b/c of the structure
Rules for Thema (note they could also apply to BISAC!)
Resources for further investigation; all will be made available afterwards, or contact me and I’ll provide more information.
To learn more, feel free to reach out to me, and thanks for your interest in Thema.
Thanks!