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Presented by Emily Gibsonon 3rd November 2011

www.corbas.co.ukemily@corbas.co.uk

E-book metadata

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What is an e-book?• A distributable digital version of a book

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An industry standard

Maintained by the International Digital Publishers Forum (IDPF)

What is ...

Zip file consisting of:OCFOPFOPS

For more information, see http://idpf.org/epub/

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Inside an EPUB

... and so on, one html file for each chapter ...

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Inside OPF file (metadata)

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Metadata• Often defined as ‘data about data’• A metadata record is a set of attributes or

elements necessary to describe the resource• Metadata predates digital publishing, but it’s

become crucial for digital information retrieval• E-book metadata involves both the data

embedded in the EPUB file and the data that is held separate from the book (e.g., library catalogue, ONIX feeds for retail venders, etc.)

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Why is metadata important?

• discoverability• delivers info needed to supply chain, incl.

online retail• feeds internal information systems• automates loading product information to

customer facing systems• puts publisher, not retailer in control• lower risk of error• time and labour saving

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ONIX • ONline Information eXchange• an international standard• an XML file• a communications protocol (i.e. computer to

computer communication), not a data model• captures metadata• managed by an international steering

committee of user group representatives• For more information see

http://www.editeur.org/

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ONIX fields

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Dublin Core• addresses the need to standardise descriptive metadata• describes books, digital materials, and composite media

like webpages• an ISO standard maintained by the Dublin Core

Metadata Initiative (DCMI)• its goals are:• simplicity of creation and maintenance• commonly understood semantics• international scope• extensibility

• for more information see http://dublincore.org/

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Dublin Core elementsSimple Dublin Core Metadata Element Set

(DCMES) consists of 15 metadata elements:

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EPUB 2 and EPUB 3• as yet, no hardware support for EPUB3• metadata in EPUB 3 much better• publishers will be able to stop sending a

separate metadata file to suppliers• only one store of metadata means half the

scope for errors• the meta element is greatly enhanced• link element that allows you to reference

metadata by url

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Linking books via metadata

http://www.bookcountry.com/books/Map/Defa

ult.aspx

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Summary• metadata can be internal (OPF) and external

(ONIX)• important for discoverability, tracking and

automation• most retailers request ONIX feeds• EPUB standard is Dublin Core• EPUB3 metadata is more useful than EPUB2 and

may make separate ONIX feeds redundant• future metadata uses will augment discoverability

using genre and subject fields, for e.g.