BIC’s ONIX: Essentials Training Course

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BIC’s ONIX: Essentials Course

Purpose of the Course
This intensive training course introduces the ONIX standard and the essentials of producing, managing, and disseminating book metadata. It mixes the background and theory of metadata with real-world practice and guidance in an approachable but authoritative way.

Benefits of Attending
Delegates will be provided with all the vital information to understand the basics of ONIX and how it is used in the book industry. To ensure our attendees get the most out of the day, we limit the number of delegates for this course to 10.

Course Level 
This course is suitable for beginners with no knowledge of ONIX, although it will also be of value to those familiar with ONIX. It is aimed at staff with management responsibility for metadata, either in editorial, IT, marketing, or production within a publisher, or in similar roles within distribution and retailing. It is not highly technical, but software developers seeking to understand ONIX would benefit from this course.

Course Outline
Prior to the course, we will contact trainees to enquire if they have specific areas of concern / interest. So although each course can be tailored to a certain degree, the overall content is as follows:

1) Introduction:

• Explanation of what ONIX is, with typical use cases
• Brief history of ONIX and its governance
• Brief overview of the other ONIX standards, e.g. for ONIX serials, ONIX for transactional messages, etc.

2) More Detail:

• Overview discussion of the different versions of ONIX, i.e. 2.1 vs 3.0
• More detail on ONIX for Books 2.1
• More detail on ONIX for Books 3.0
• Business benefits of: using ONIX; the BIC Product Data Excellence Award (PDEA) Accreditation Scheme
• Introduction to XML syntax
• Semantics and code lists
• ONIX for Books data feeds and best practice

3) Key Data Elements: 

• Record reference
• Product identifier
• Contributor
• Titles
• Sets, series, collections
• Subject codes (BIC, BISAC, Thema, CBMC, etc.)
• Key words
• Descriptive text and reviews
• Imprint and publisher
• Territorial rights
• Related works and products
• Supply details and pricing

4) Best Practice Guidelines

Read the full course outline here.