BISG releases report on book and ebook metadata

What do you call a study about metadata? Metametadata? Metadatadata?

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) calls it “Development, Use and Modification of Book Product Metadata,” its brand new publication prepared by Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media Consulting and done in conjunction with BookNet Canada.

As O’Leary hinted during BISG’s Making Information Pay event in the spring, metadata in publishing is a mess, with some 95% of publishers reporting that the metadata they send out into the supply chain has been changed at some point by the time it reaches a retail outlet. (There are handy charts detailing the many steps in the process where such changes can advertently and inadvertently take place.)

The 37-page report assesses why this is so (essentially an ever-complicated web of middlemen like distributors, aggregators and content converters, as well as vast differences in the practices of large, medium and small publishers) and provides 10 recommendations publishers, retailers and other players (like metadata management vendors and services) can use to improve their processes and “future proof” metadata in the supply chain.

A five-page executive summary is available in PDF form (free for BISG members, $49 for non-members) as well as the full, 37-page report in PDF and EPUB formats ($199 for members, $499 for non-members).

If you download them, let us know if the metadata matches up.

Full press release below

BISG Report on Use and Modification of Book Product Metadata Now Available

In-depth research study tracks and identifies metadata pain points and makes recommendations for data senders and recipients

New York, NY (June 25, 2012) — The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) announced today the publication of Development, Use, and Modification of Book Product Metadata, a 37-page report detailing how publishers, retailers, and other industry stakeholders create and use metadata. The report, prepared for BISG by Brian O’Leary of Magellan Media Consulting, also presents both process and future proofing recommendations to improve product metadata in the supply chain.