1. ONIX
A presentation by Janet Leu for LIS 882.

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/
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