The Metadata Is the Message Why Your Book Doesn’t Exist Without It

What Is Metadata? “Data about data” A book is a collection of data Metadata describes the book

No, Really. What Is Metadata? – ISBN – Title – Author – Publisher Name – BISAC codes – Price – Description – Table of Contents – Cover image – Reviews/excerpts/customer reviews

Metadata Is Marketing

Bad Metadata is Bad Marketing

Scan Bar Code

Get Metadata

Good Metadata Is Good Marketing

Options!

Bad Book Metadata Is Bad Book Marketing

Categories Are Important

Good Book Metadata Is Good Book Marketing

Helpful Categories

Why Metadata Is More Important Than Ever According to a recent eMarketer survey, 61% of consumers browse and research their purchases online 37% do so in a store According to Bowker, 16% of readers become aware of books via online means – 13% get their awareness from friends/family – 21% get their awareness from the bookstore itself ALA reports that 51 million Americans access their public library online (from home, school or work) Library use has increased during difficult economic times

The E-Commerce Metadata Trail Publisher Book Data Bowker/Ingram/B&T Book Data Google/Amazon/B&N Book Data

The Library Metadata Trail Publisher Book Data OCLC Book Data Ordering/OPAC Book Data

You’re Exposed! Consumers (Google, Amazon, B&N, Borders, Library Websites) Bookstore staff – Buyers (who decide on orders) – Clerks (who direct consumers to purchases) – Inventory staff (who have to know where the books are) Library staff – Collection Development (who place bulk orders) – Information/Reference staff (who direct patrons to the shelves)

What to Do Fix It – Correct titles – Correct author names – Correct BISAC codes and keywords – Truly descriptive descriptions Automate It – Manual keying = mistakes Package It – ONIX – CSV – TXT

Use It Send out feeds to your vendors (ONIX, GDSN) Send feeds to data aggregators for library use Populate your website with it Insert it into the source code for your books’ web pages (SEO) Generate your catalogs with it Keep your workflow organized with it

Mostly…Pay Attention To It! Value it Assign its maintenance to someone who sees its value