1. Identification of eBooks:
One Year On
O Y O
Mark Bide, Executive Director, EDItEUR
NISO/BISG Forum at ALA: Washington, June 25, 2010

2. About EDItEUR
About EDItEUR
 London‐based global trade standards organization for books and
serials supply chains
i l l h i
 Established 1991
 Not‐for‐profit membership organization
 ONIX family of communications standards
 ONIX for Books
 ONIX for Serials
ONIX for Serials
(online subscription products including ebooks)
 ONIX for Licensing Terms
 EDI
 RFID
 Manage the International ISBN Agency 2

3. THE CHALLENGE TO THE ISBN …
THE CHALLENGE TO THE ISBN 3
AS I DESCRIBED IT LAST YEAR

4. ISBN rules of assignment
ISBN rules of assignment
• “A separate ISBN shall be assigned to each separate
monographic publication, or separate edition of a
monographic publication issued by a publisher. A separate
ISBN shall be assigned to each different language edition of a
g ff g g f
monographic publication.”
• “Different product forms (e.g. hardcover, paperback, Braille,
audio‐book, video, online electronic publication) shall be
audio‐book video online electronic publication) shall be
assigned separate ISBNs. Each different format of an electronic
publication (e.g. “.lit”,“.pdf”, “.html”, “.pdb”) that is published
and made separately available shall be given a separate ISBN.
and made separately available shall be given a separate ISBN ”
4

5. Why did ISBN set this rule?
Why did ISBN set this rule?
• Ease of trading
• Most book trade e‐commerce systems require ISBNs
• Certainty of identification is critical for effective e‐commerce
• Ease of discovery of the different formats available
Ease of discovery of the different formats available
• Bibliographic databases require ISBNs and users do not want to
be tied to one channel
• Collecting detailed sales/usage data
/
• If separate formats are not identified in a standard way, sales and
usage data by format cannot be easily collected
5

6. But many publishers have chosen
not to follow the rules
• “We only “publish” one generic format (e.g. .epub) and assign an ISBN
to that”
h ”
• “We are not responsible for formats provided by third part
intermediaries”
• “W d ’t
“We don’t care whether or not different product formats are listed in
h th t diff t d tf t li t d i
bibliographic databases”
• “Hardware‐led channels do not require standard identifiers; customers
will find our books through their preferred platform outlet
will find our books through their preferred platform outlet”
• “Our system requires us to manually create and manage separate
ONIX records for each ISBN we assign – we can’t manage the
metadata bloat involved”
• “Our sales channels do not require standard identifiers for ebooks –
they can use proprietary identifiers”
• “ISBNs are too expensive for us to assign to each format”
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• “It is too difficult to assign ISBNs for formats provided by third part
intermediaries”

7. If not a publishers’ ISBN at product
level, then what?
1. Use proprietary product identifiers in the channel
2. Have someone else apply ISBNs in the channel
3. …and introduce yet another new identifier…like the music
industry has?
7

8. WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE LAST
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE LAST 8
YEAR?

9. US ebook sales to end of Q1
2010 (before the launch of the iPad)
9
IDPF and AAP

10. The implication of growth on that
scale?
“Within five years there will be more digital
Within five years there will be more digital
content sold than physical content. Three years
ago, I said within ten years but I realised that
g , y
was wrong – it’s within five.”
Steve Haber,
President, Digital Reading Business, Sony Electronics
P id t Di it l R di B i S El t i
...and while you might think “He would say that, wouldn’t he”
this estimate is not seen as out of court by some publishing CEOs
–both Carole Reid of Simon & Schuster and Brian Murray of
HarperCollins recently went on record as believing that “40 to 10
50%” of their sales would be digital in 5 years

11. And what has changed with
ISBN and ebooks?
11

12. 12

13. Still moving in the direction of a
single “eISBN” for every title?
• The ISBN agencies say “no” and are not alone
• http://www.isbn‐international.org/pages/media/ISBN_e‐book_paper_Feb2010.pdf
• http://www.bic.org.uk/files/pdfs/091217%20id%20code%20of%20practice%20final.pdf
• Publishers still find little agreement
• M k d diff
Marked differences in practice between publishers
i ti b t bli h
• Marked differences between practices in different countries
• Google is adopting the ISBN for Google Editions
• …and is requesting a unique ISBN from publishers…
• …and will assign its own ISBNs if the publisher does not…
• …but has no way of knowing whether the ISBN they have been given
by a publisher is unique to the Google Edition
• Report on cataloging model for a “Provider‐Neutral E‐Monograph
Record” in MARC refers to an eISBN (while making it clear that the
13
catalog record is not manifestation‐specific) [July 2009]

14. All
different

15. All the
All the
same

16. ISBN for ebrary
ISBN for
ISBN for ebrary edition

17. ISBN for NetLibrary
ISBN for
ISBN for NetLibrary edition

18. ISBN for EBL edition
ISBN for EBL edition

19. Single ISBN for all versions
Single ISBN for all versions

20. From ISBN research, libraries
want it both ways….
“Essential to have a single 'matching point' to compare collections, pull‐in
“E ti l t h i l ' t hi i t' t ll ti ll i
usage data, exclude already‐purchased titles from lists, etc.
Useful to have a second ISBN for each platform as different platforms have
p p
different DRM etc. Combined with a single ISBN for all formats, would help to
identify where we have purchased the same title from more than one
platform.”
“The use of a single ISBN would enable provider‐neutral records and act
g p
similarly to eISSNs. Open link resolution, federated search, and unified
discovery platforms would also benefit from the use of a single eISBN.
It is also useful to have some sort of identifier by platform, particularly for
back‐end vendor operations.”

21. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? 21

22. Why not stick with existing
rules?
• Significant and real problems with publishers’ metadata
management
• Instead of one or two metadata records, there may be dozens
• There are system solutions, but very few publishers have them
• Many publishers systems are ISBN‐dependent
• Significant and real problems with workflow
• Publishers do not know what products will be published and
p p
therefore have to be able to create ISBNs “on the fly”…
• …often for third parties where there are significant challenges in
connecting systems to ensure integrity and accuracy of metadata
• These challenges are even greater where the vendor attaches
their own ISBN
• Perhaps soon there will only be one ebook format anyway?
22
• Are we creating a structure to meet a temporary requirement

23. So, why not change existing
rules?
• One eISBN simply does not meet everyone’s requirements:
serious risk of development of multiple non‐standard
solutions – a well ordered supply chain could disintegrate as
no one knows what an ISBN represents
p
• Products need unique identification
• Are we going to return to
• Classic problem of “lumping and splitting” if we call two
Classic problem of “lumping and splitting” – if we call two
things the same thing when we subsequently need to
distinguish between them, it will become impossible
• A particular challenge for sales, usage reporting
• We have found little support (outside the library community)
for the introduction of a “release identifier” to collocate all 23
ebook manifestations

24. Possible system assistance for
publishers
24
One metadata
record –
multiple ISBNS

25. Seeking a way forward
Seeking a way forward
• International ISBN Agency (through EDItEUR) commissioning
research on possible mechanisms for supporting the status
quo – for example, making it easier for a third party to obtain
an ISBN and metadata record from the publisher
p
• BISG commissioning research aimed that “describes, defines
and makes recommendations for the identification of e‐books
in the U.S. supply chain…to support a BISG‐endorsed policy
in the U S supply chain to support a BISG‐endorsed policy
statement that responds to the International ISBN Agency’s
recommendation regarding the assignment of ISBNs to
separate e‐book formats
separate e book formats”
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26. A simple envoi
A simple envoi
The ISBN is probably the most effective globally
The ISBN is probably the most effective globally
implemented product identifier that has ever been
devised. Are we sure we want to throw that away?
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27. Identification of eBooks:
One Year On
O Y O
mark@editeur.org