Big-picture Andyw Interview

Q & A: with Andy Weissberg, R. R. Bowker © 2009 LJN Dawson.com What is the ISTC? An approved ISO standard (ISO 21047), the ISTC provides a means of uniquely and persistently identifying textual works in information systems, and facilitates the exchange of information about such works between publishers, authors and authors associations, collective management organizations, libraries, search engines and others on an international level. What are publishers using it for? Will it help with discoverability on the web? For publishers, authors and rights-holders, the ISTC will optimize and streamline consumer discovery of various book product and format options, providing an industry-standardized framework for linking and co-locating print and digital manifestations (product options) of original textual works in retail, search engine and library catalogues. Instead of needing to know all the different titles under which the same work has been published, the user need only find one edition, from which the ISTC number can be used to link all alternative editions of the work. Conversely, when a publication has a title shared with, or similar to that of completely different works, the results-list of a search can be reduced to include only the desired work. This can be more precise, and certainly quicker, then relying on refining a search using one or more contributor names, especially when the author has written several works with similar titles. Will I still need ISBNs? Absolutely, yes ISBNs are critical to unambiguously identify book products. The ISTC is not intended for identifying individual manifestations of a textual work, which in the book trade are primarily facilitated by ISBNs. Cataloging systems in the retail and library sectors still heavily rely on the ISBN to uniquely identify individual products and product options. The ISTC is an attribute of a product record which can conveniently co-locate product options as a group of same-text product options. We just got over the ISBN-13 transition - does this mean I have to revamp my systems AGAIN? Enhancing and updating publisher cataloging systems and other internal systems to incorporate the ISTC attribute within product records is a discretionary decision that boils down to data efficacy and will very well vary from publisher to publisher. The ability to effectively link various same- title product formats to a common record can serve a variety of business purposes, and is sometimes a difficult task for many publishers in their database environments. The ISTC will help simplify this task and it is anticipated that this emerging standard will play an important role going forward in discoverability, rights management and catalog optimization. Is this a required identifier for ONIX? No. ISTC is not required for ONIX. Future versions of ONIX will incorporate fields that include ISTC attributes. Bowker will incorporate ISTC attributes as assigned in its Books in Print® database as an enhanced methodology for co-locating product options to optimize search and discoverability.

What happens if I don’t use it? There are no consequences for not using ISTCs. It is not a "mandatory" standard, although it will likely become more important to publishers in the near-term as adoption increases and business benefits are realized. The ISBN standard has served a variety of needs in the publishing supply chain, and its full adoption throughout the supply chain has made possible the efficient and unambiguous identification and cataloging of book products. Business cases of similar importance, particularly in the realm of optimizing digital discovery, sales analyses and analyses of loans in the library space, will help drive use and adoption. Why can't I just use a DOI? The DOI standard, while servingsimilar functional purposes as the ISTC primarily from the perspectives of enhanced digital discoverability and persistent levels of identification, is different by ISO Standards definition and should not be perceived as a comparative option for content identification. Whereas the ISTC functions as a global identification system for co-locating original textual works and manifestations that textually match, the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®) System is a managed system for persistentidentification of content on digital networks - but the DOI standard does not require matching at the text level within its resolution scheme. Publishers can make choices within their DOI resolution schemas as to which products can be co- located, with exact text matches not being necessary. For example, a DOI can "point" to a web site link that features information about multiple products - such as product recommendations within the same genre that do not necessarily match at the textual level. Both standards do allow for both DOI and/or ISTC attributes to be captured and leveraged in their respective meta-data schemas. Publishers are encouraged to review how both the DOI and ISTC standards may suit their business needs. I don't want to understand any of this - I just want to publish my books. Can the ISBN Agency manage this for me? The U.S. ISBN Agency, which is operated by Bowker, also functions as a DOI registration agency and ISTC registration agency. Bowker has developed numerous offerings and interfaces that leverage all three identifiers to optimize discoverability and to assist publishers with their title management and marketing efforts. In order to leverage these solutions, and enable the ISBN Agency to "manage this important function," it is important that publishers provide comprehensive and quality meta-data about their titles, for which Bowker provides various options and interfaces including MyIdentifiers.com which features identifier registration and assignment, title management and search engine optimization tools. Additional interfaces, such as data portability to social networks that will enable the seamless configuration of title and author profile pages, will be available to publishers later in 2009. More information is available at www.myidentifiers.com, the new online home of the U.S. ISBN Agency.