Identifiers for a Digital World June 29, 2010 Patricia Payton Senior Director of Publisher Relations & Content Development

Agenda Purpose, practical applications & state of development Identifier as a solution Current issues preventing adoption Interoperability and industry change

International Standard Book Number (ISBN) Purpose: Establish and identify one title or edition of a title from one specific publisher and allow for more efficient marketing of products by booksellers, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors. Practical Application: Identify the second edition of a title to delineate it from first edition and aid in distribution and sales. State of Development: Print use mature. Digital use varies by publisher.

eBook Identification Solution "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.“ E-Books and ISBNsE-Books and ISBNs, International ISBN Agency

eBook Identification Issues Debate on ISBN usage for print book only Print on Demand (POD) and eBooks sharing ISBN Most publishers treat EPUB (open eBook format used as basis for creating & proprietary formats) as single ISBN – Sales are tracked by channel/vendor (i.e. Sony), not by item – Some publishers developed own eBook sales policy & pricing Publishers have “wait and see” attitude as to eBook sales tracking investments Some aggregators assign ISBNs later in workflow Confusion with ISTC as eBook identifier

Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Purpose: Identify content objects in the digital environment (not necessarily books) and provide current information, including where they (or information about them) can be found on the Internet. Practical Application: Identify location of an online journal article so that subscription services can list and sell the item. State of Development: Draft of standard with ISO for approval.

Persistent URLs

eBook Linking Issues Predominance of non-html files Files are transmitted to conversion houses rather than publisher housing content Lack of central repository for eBook content Chunking of content not wide spread eBooks linking to outside content just in development now

International Standard Text Code (ISTC) Purpose: Enable the unique identification of textual works (in varying formats & media) and the automated aggregation, collocation, filtering, etc. of publication records. Practical Application: Identify related works based on content so that websites can display print, ebook & audio together for customer. State of Development: ISO standard since March 2009.

Collated Ebook Sales Tracking Tool

Issues to Overcome Adjustment of scope over time causes confusion Supply chain parties already have proprietary linking Each party has different linking needs Publishers still not concerned with rights held outside of house or foreign language editions No longer serves purpose for content chunking or related products Retroactive assignments labor/cost intensive Lack of crossover of retailers/hardware

International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) Purpose: Identify Public Identities of parties involved throughout the media content industries in the creation, production, management, and content distribution chains. Practical Application: Identify an author and link him to the original book, screenplay for movie tie-in, his blog, etc. State of Development: Draft standard. Aiming for ISO approval early 2011.

Multimedia Content Linkage Singer Broadway Performer Soap Opera Actor Movie Actor

Individual Identification Issues Supply chain parties already have proprietary linking Each party has different linking needs Rights/royalties tracked by individual companies eBooks linking to outside content just in development now Involved industries that have not traditionally cooperated at the content creation level

Interoperability and Industry Change Online content, openly available to any user any place Recent industry change: – eBook sales 2010 – New eReaders gaining market share – Shifting channels of distribution Communication across supply chain aids all Identifier bloat causing concern amongst publishers Identifiers can no longer operate independent of each other – Some standards carry other identifiers within system (e.g. ISTC, ISNI)

Further Information isbn.org isbn-international.org istc-international.org doi.org isni.org bisg.org