ONIX - Metadata at publishing companies and in the book trade

ONIX (the acronym for Online Information Exchange) is the first standard for enriched metadata about books, serial publications and other products in the book trade to be accepted around the world. It was originally developed in the U.S.A. with the initial goal of providing internet booksellers with a uniform format for catalog data and additional marketing material. From the beginning, book suppliers, bibliographic agencies and publishers in the U.S.A. (and soon thereafter in the U.K.) participated in the development of ONIX, supporting it with both funding and staff. The maintenance and continuing development of this new standard was then placed in the hands of EDItEUR, an international umbrella organization for book trade standards. The Association of German Booksellers and the European Booksellers Federation are among the founding member organizations of EDItEUR, whose seat in London is provided by the British publishers' and booksellers' organization BIC (Book Industry Communication). EDItEUR was established ten years ago by book trade, publishing and library organizations in order to develop EDI standards (the acronym for Electronic Data interchange) for the communication between booksellers and publishers, on the one hand, and between libraries and their suppliers, on the other hand. It approved guidelines for a series of EANCOM messages, including orders, confirmation notices, invoices and sales offers. A draft guideline for PRICAT messages (Price and Sales Catalogue) was developed several years ago as a method of transfering catalog data, but has until now never been tested, much less been put to productive use. In contrast, EDI transaction messages are frequently used both in the library world and also in the book trade throughout Europe.