Meet-up (en): Frankfurt Book Fair 2025 - metadata

Key topics that are addressed

The discussion started with the questions ‘how to display the metadata information to consumers and how to match the metadata information in an epub vs. the information in ONIX?

Because the code list is very long an partly redundant, publishers question what they need to fill in.

A question that emerged from this was: what to do with ONIX when the file is not produced yet? You have to check before the file is produced. And then check again if something has changed. Discrepancies are bound to happen.

Because in Poland publishers are not using metadata/ONIX at all at this time, there was a discussion about how they could start and explaining the use of Schema.org, ONIX and MARC21.

Participants shared how things work in their country:

• In Poland and Lithuania the use of ONIX is non-existent. However in Lithuania they started a taskforce with publishers, the national library and LAB to move forward on this.
• In The Netherlands ONIX is used, but we do not know whether everything is filled out well and of there are differences between the actual file and what is shown to consumers.
• In Germany there is only a check on the ONIX file. 
  Bookwire offers publishers who do not work with ONIX an overlay to fill in with accessibility information. Bookwire will send it to the retailers.
• In Sweden TexTalk works with publishers, but very late in the production process. Publishers let TexTalk remove the metadata if it contains confidential information. They make newspapers and magazines in epub and their clients have different accessibility formats. Customer are reading in a controlled environment (e-readers).

In the final minutes of the session the matter of how to check an EPUB came about. Fondazione LIA explained that they use automated tools, but there are still a lot of manual checks necessary after that.

Key findings, struggles

• In the different European countries there is still a lot of difference between how metadata is already used. In Poland and Lithuania publishers are just starting. In other counties are a few steps ahead.
• Everyone agrees that the ONIX information is relevant for consumers to find out what they are buying or lending. But the question was raised how consumers with a reading impairment stand towards the accessibility metadata? Accessibility metadata is primairily to share accessibility information with end-users. Based on research varied answers came up. The most important thing for everyone is consistency: using the same descriptions, the same order and the same subjects. Bookwire addresses that there are already reviews available where the mention of metadata is appreciated. Maybe the display of metadata will be more common when retailers add a filter on their website where consumers can select an accessible file?
• The wish for mapping/crosswalk of ONIX, Schema.org and (UNI)MARC, which is mentioned is available.