RE: Report of Library E-Book Acquisitions Survey

[<Toby.GREEN@oecd.org>]

I agree totally with Joe: publishers have no choice but to get 
into the metadata game. This is not just because online sales 
channels only work with great metadata, but also because 
publishers must stimulate/facilitate awareness of their 
publications via the many non-sales discovery channels - and this 
includes not just librarian catalogue systems, but also search 
engines and subject repositories (like Repec in economics). We're 
investing more in metadata creation going beyond the book level 
(e.g. MARC records) and have started creating metadata around 
chapters and even graphics within chapters. Once a chapter is 
discovered, then it's but a couple of clicks towards another book 
sold. It's like putting more chips on a roulette table: the more 
chips you scatter around, the greater the chance you win. Unlike 
roulette, however, all the chips stay on the table round after 
round (search after search) so an investment in metadata keeps on 
paying. Besides, creating MARC records for librarians and 
providing downloadable citations for readers from chapter-level 
metadata means providing a better service to our clients - and 
that has to be a good thing.

Toby Green
OECD Publishing

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu 
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Joseph 
Esposito
Sent: 07 April, 2011 3:30 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Report of Library E-Book Acquisitions Survey

Michael,

These are excellent notes.  One comment:

You ask if publishers want to get into the metadata/cataloguing 
game. That's 2 separate questions.  Some publishers will get into 
the cataloguing game, however reluctantly.  But all publishers 
will get into the metadata game.  They have no choice.  No one 
else cares as much about this as they do.  They also are dealing 
with the decline if not outright collapse of the 
bricks-and-mortar sales channel, which puts greater pressure on 
online sales.  For online sales all a publisher has is metadata; 
there is no point-of-sale merchandising possible (except as 
expressed through metadata).  In this instance, libraries are not 
the primary concern, but if a publisher develops robust metadata 
for Amazon and other online venues, why would it be withheld from 
a library?

Joe Esposito