ThemaTom Richardson

Neha Thanki

June 23, 2014

1. Subjects in Context2. Thema Overview3. Thema Implementation

Thema in 3 easy pieces

Subjects in Context

SubjectAudienceAudience Range

Why do publishers supply these metadata values?

They allow your trading partners, librarians, and other data users to • select the right books, and• winnow book lists down.

These metadata values are used to direct book metadata within organizations to professionals and decisions makers who specialize in areas like Children’s Books, Nonfiction, Romance, etc.

These are broad, generalized values but without them the only option to differentiate between Trade Fiction and Picture Books is manual vetting.

Most organizations will direct a book based on what you tell them in the metadata, but if it goes to the wrong gatekeeper it may not go further.

Don’t contradict yourself.• Pairing a General Trade audience code with a

Juvenile subject is a contradiction of terms.Don’t repeat codes.• Coding is hierarchical – you don’t need to

supply a “Fiction-General” code if you’ve supplied a specific fiction code.

Be professional and specific

All Juvenile and Young Adult books need Audience Range coding to support at least interest age as well as grade and reading age values if appropriate.

Ranges should be specific (3 years or less).

Support the metadata fully

It will be used to present your books to consumers, provide structure to websites, catalogues and other systems that help consumers find (and buy) the book.

at best by a cursory assessment with little chance of appeal.

If your data is accurate

If not, your data is replaced

• Trade Book Classification• Library Book Classification• Keywords

Types of Subject Classifications

Done by librarians to classify books within broad world knowledge based systems – LC and Dewey.

Publishers don’t need to do this -- or have the training required -- but most books have C I P Cataloguing In Publication information on file.

Why not add that information to your to your metadata to help support library sales?

Library Subject Classifications

Best Practices for Keywords in Metadatahttps://www.bisg.org/publications/best-practices-keywords-metadataand the subject of a future BNC Webinar.Keywords are a discovery tool, a way to provide search term alternatives, but they provide an important way to add specificity to generalized Trade Book Classification

Keywords

• Limited vocabulary• Subjects are groupings of books that are

available for sale.

It exists to provide RETAILERS (and their customers) a guide to the “right section” and “right shelf” of their bookstore or on-line site.

Trade Book Classification

BothThema and BISAC

are trade book classification systems.

• Mandatory on ALL books sold.• A single subject to describe the book’s main

subject.• Be specific – this is used by other publishing

professionals.

Main Subject

• Use as many additional subjects as appropriate, but fewer are better.

• Use the highest code in the hierarchy.

Additional Subject(s)

Thema Overview

Thema is live!

• Version 1.0 was released November 2013

• BISAC to Thema Mapping and support is available

• 2014 is the year of implementation

A single subject classification scheme supporting global trade for all book products

Physical or Digitalfor the purpose of

Trade Book classification for retailers.

What is Thema?

It’s a possible replacement for BISAC Subjects.

(But no Canadian or US retailer wants publishers to stop supporting BISAC yet – and BISG plans to continue to support BISAC indefinitely.)

Thema is new

It will replace BIC Subjects.

(The current version of BIC is the last one. The UK will use Thema for future updates.)

Thema is new

It just a system of codes that establishes a book’s

Main Subject and Additional Subjects

for retailers, done for the same reasons you use BISAC or BIC now.

It’s a molehill, not a mountain.

Thema isn’t a big time commitment

Publishers could clearly communicate all product data internationally

– except subject classification.

The need was obvious

Thema can replace local schemes and the need for endless mappings & conversions.

Retailers and anyone using international metadata saw the advantage immediately.

The need was obvious

Digital metadata is international.

This is obvious

AIEAmazon.co.ukAustralian PABaker & TaylorBarnes & NobleBICBISGBokrondellenBooknet CanadaBowkerBTLFCBDanish PA

DilveEditisElectreElkotob.comElsevierGiant ChairGuild of Book Dealers (Russia)HachetteHarperCollinsInformazioni EditorialiIngram

Japan Publishers OrganisationKoboKogan PageLibriMVBNielsen BookNorske Bokdatabasen NTCPDS ChinaRandom HouseSpringer Waterstones

Sign-in was rapid

National Groups are formed and include all English speaking markets.

Governance is similar to ONIX and run by EDItEUR.

Thema is being used now.

Europe has active use.

Thema

• Supports both the English and French language supply chains in a single list.

• English and French Thema governance is distinct and independent of each other, while cooperating on the final code list.

Why is it needed for Canada?

1KBCCanada’s Thema Geography Code already has

148 sub-codes

and there are 7 additional Canada specific political and socioeconomic codes

Why is it needed for Canada?

• Thema has the potential to provide better coverage of Canadian subjects.

• Thema gives Canadian publishers better support for international sales.

Why is it needed for Canada?

BISAC to Thema Translatorhttp://bisactothema.biblioshare.org/

BISAC to Thema Translator Manualhttps://booknetcanada.atlassian.net/wiki/display/UserDocs/BISAC+to+Thema+Translator

Help: bisactothema@booknetcanada.ca

The tools are in place

• Continue to provide BISAC Subjects on new titles and maintain it on their backlist.

• Begin supplying Thema Subjects and Qualifiers on new titles and backlist as soon as possible to facilitate retailer adoption and help identify problems.

Data suppliers are asked to

Canadian and international retailers, or any other service provider, can’t adopt Thema (or any new metadata standard) until publishers

begin to provide data.

It’s up to publishers first

Thema is a positive and useful standard for Canadian publishing

that deserves rapid adoption.

Thema Implementation

Get the documents from EDItEUR site

www.editeur.org/151/Thema

• Version 1.0 headings and code (Excel)

• Basic Instructions (PDF)

• Executive briefing (PDF)

1. Gather materials

2. Familiarize yourselfThe Basic Instruction PDF is short – 12 pages:

1. Introduction (pg 1)

2. Structure (pg 1-2)

3. Six Rules and Two Notes (pg 3-4)

4. Subject Categories summary (pg 4-7)

5. Qualifiers summary (pg 7-8)

6. Examples (pg 9)

7. Use in ONIX (pg 10-11)

8. In other formats (pg 12)

Technical staff (implementers or receivers) will find pages 10 to 12 helpful as it has information about what valid codes should look like as well as guidelines for how and why to truncate codes.

2. Familiarize yourself

The 20 Subject Categories byTheir Code’s Leading Character

A The ArtsC Language & LinguisticsD Bio., Lit. & Lit. StudiesF Fiction & RelatedG Reference & InterdisciplinaryJ Society & Social StudiesK Economics, Finance, BusinessL LawM Medicine & NursingN History

P Mathematics & ScienceQ Philosophy & ReligionR Earth Sci., GeographyT Technology, Engin., Agric.S Sports & Outdoor RecreationU Computing & Info TechnologyV Health, RelationshipsW Lifestyle, Hobbies & LeisureX Graphic Novels, etc.Y Children’s, Teenager, & Educ.

The 6 Qualifier Lists byTheir Code’s Leading Number

1 Geographical2 Language3 Time period

4 Educational Purpose5 Age & Special Interest6 Style

Available on the following Qualifier Lists:

• Geography (Canada has 155)

• Time Period

• Educational Purpose

• Interest Age & Special Interest

Neither Language nor Style Qualifiers have national extensions.

National Extensions

YBC Children’s picture books

Plus Qualifier List 5 has Merchandising codes:

5HCJ Mother’s Day

Love You Forever

NHF Asian history

1KBC-CA-OSMGreater Toronto Area

3MNQX c 1880 to c 18893MNQZ c 1890 to c 18993MP c 1900 to c 1999

The Chinese in Toronto from 1878

1 Geography

1K The Americas

1KB North America

1KBC Canada

Hierarchy and National Extensions

Example Code: 1KBC-CA-OSM

-CA- Canadian Nat Extension

O Ontario

OS Southwestern ON

OSM Greater Toronto

Any database or metadata suite that can handle• repeatable subjects And assumes a subject is represented by • a defining code value • In association with a unique code

Should be able to support Thema – or any subject system in ONIX.

3. Assess your systems

Make sure your system can distinguish between the book’s Main Subject and its Additional Subjects.

A Main Subject is the ONE mandatory Subject Code

Qualifiers may also be part of Main Subject, but generally Qualifiers are “additional” subject support.

3. Assess your systems

Can you export Thema codes in ONIX or any other document?

If you use ONIX 2.1, does your software support the Main Subject Composite?

3. Assess your systems

Raise awareness among • Marketing staff • IT or your software vendor• Editorial and data quality – who will

have new levels of accuracy available in subjects.

4. Get your company on-board

No retailer can implement their Thema program until they have data to vet, but you can make sure they know what you’re doing.

They’ll likely want to test your data!

5. Talk to your trading partners

Thema

• Code front list and best selling titles• Map codes from existing scheme for backlist

Review and update coding based on what you’ve learned• Export as metadata (notify recipients)

Review and update coding based on feedback from retailers

Implementation Milestones

Thema

At this point there’s no such thing • Maintain BISAC Subjects and apply them as

you have in the past. Retailers need time to make a transition.

Neither Thema nor BISAC are, or should be considered a substitute for support for• Keywords• Library subject headings

Legacy subject schemes

Thema

• BISG’s BISAC to Thema mapping• ^ awesome because your titles (should)

already have BISAC codes!• BISAC to Thema Translator• Demo! www.bisactothema.biblioshare.org

Starting from BISAC

BookNet has set up a Google Group Email list:

“A discussion board for the Canadian English language publishing supply chain to trade tips and information about the Thema book subject classification system.”

Join by sending a request to the above email.

Problems?biblio@booknetcanada.ca

Shy? Have a question you don’t want in front of your peers?

You can solicit help from BNC staff at the same email.

biblio@booknetcanada.ca

The Thema National Group for Canada (English Language Supply Chain) needs a few good people to read, think, and represent the needs of our supply chain in international decisions (not to mention a better name).

The Group Discussion Board is a good starting point on this.

Participate? biblio@booknetcanada.ca

Thank youbiblio@booknetcanada.ca

Tom Richardson: trichardson@booknetcanada.caNeha Thanki: nthanki@booknetcanada.ca

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