Digital Directions: The Semantic Web
• Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC). Publishing professionals know all about taxonomies. They use them every day. BISAC and Library of Congress subject headings are, in fact, standardized taxonomies, used to connect partners along the publishing value chain. Publishers do not typically embed BISAC tags according to the Semantic Web technical specification, nor do BISAC subject categories contain the detail necessary to perform research. Ted Hill, a publishing consultant who specializes in digital supply chain issues, points out that BISAC was created to let booksellers know on which shelf in a bookstore to place a book. “BISAC subject codes were part of a strategy to reduce double-stocking and cut the cost of inventory,” notes Hill, “not promote discovery by search engines.” However, BISAC is conceptually consistent with the semantic vision described by Berners-Lee.