Onix for Books

This document aims to provide you with a clear understanding of ONIX for Books, an essential standard for metadata management, and how it integrates into our software.

Onix Management with Stison

Stison offers a comprehensive approach to ONIX, enabling publishers to seamlessly ingest & create ONIX 2.1 and ONIX 3 files. We simplify the entire workflow by automating the process of sending up-to-date data to multiple destinations. This ensures that publishers can keep their information accurate and current across the industry.

Why use Onix? 

ONIX provides a standardized and efficient method for sharing essential metadata and product information in the global book industry. It simplifies communication between publishers, distributors, and retailers, ensuring the accuracy and currency of title information. This not only improves the discoverability of books in digital marketplaces, but also reduces errors and inefficiencies associated with manual data entry.

ONIX also facilitates the management of diverse product offerings, making it easier to introduce new titles and editions. Ultimately, adopting ONIX enables publishers to remain competitive, reach broader audiences, and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the book industry.

What is ONIX for Books?

ONIX (ONline Information eXchange) for Books is a global standard used by publishers, distributors, and retailers to exchange and manage metadata related to books and other publications. It plays a pivotal role in facilitating the exchange of information about books throughout the publishing supply chain. ONIX is a structured format that ensures consistency and accuracy in conveying essential details about each publication.

ONIX includes a wide range of metadata elements that cover various aspects of a book, including:

-        Title and subtitle

-        Author(s)

-        ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

-        Description and blurbs

-        Cover images

-        Price and currency

-        Publication date

-        Availability status

-        Format (e.g., hardcover, paperback, eBook)

-        Subject categories and keywords

-        Contributors (editors, illustrators, translators)

-        Related products (e.g., sequels, volumes)

ONIX and Tags

ONIX uses a tag-based structure to organize and represent metadata about books and publications. Tags are used to enclose specific data elements and provide a structured format for describing various aspects of a book.

In ONIX, data elements are enclosed within specific tags, which are indicated by angle brackets (< >). These tags define the beginning and end of each data element. For example:

In this example <TitleText> is the opening tag and </TitleText> is the closing tag. The data ‘Title Example’ is enclosed within these tags.

ONIX allows for the nesting of tags within other tags to represent complex data structures. For example, you can have nested tags to represent contributors (authors, editors, illustrators), related products, and more. Onix also allows the repetition of tags to represent more than one occurrence on an item.

In the above example, the <ContributorRole> and <PersonName> tags are nested within the <Contributor> tag to represent information about a contributor to a book. The contributor node in this example has been repeated representing two different contributors. 

Onix Code lists

Code lists are like a guidebook for book metadata. They help keep things consistent by providing standardized references for different aspects of the metadata. Codelists ensure that all the information is presented in the same way within ONIX metadata & only valid codes are past within the data. These code lists are regularly updated to keep up with changes in the industry.

If you opened up an Onix message and tried to read the contents of a tag, there could be a code value in place of text.

To understand what the ‘06’ means you will have to look up the code value by checking ONIX for Books Codelists Issue 61, List 64: Publishing Status and find the appropriate entry. 

Out of stock indefinitely

06

The product was active, but is now inactive in the sense that (a) the publisher cannot fulfill orders for it, though stock may still be available elsewhere in the supply chain, and (b) there are no current plans to bring it back into stock. Use this code for ‘reprint under consideration’. Code 06 does not specifically imply that returns are or are not still accepted

There are over 150 lists explaining the different code values that could be present in an Onix message.

For more information, please see the Editeur website https://www.editeur.org/