Metadata for e‐commerce: the ONIX International standard

Abstract

The Online Information Exchange (ONIX) international standard is a collaborative project aimed at developing descriptive and administrative metadata for books. ONIX was first published in January 2000, and was a result of funding from the Association of American Publishers. It was conceived in order to provide Internet booksellers with rich, standardized data that could promote e-commerce. The metadata initiative is currently in release 1.2, dated November 24, 2000, and is maintained cooperatively by three bodies: EDItEUR, an international group, which coordinates standards for electronic commerce; the Book Industry Communication, a London-based organization charged with exploring electronic data interchange; and the Book Industry Study Group (http://www.bisg.org/), a nonprofit association stationed in New York, which develops technical standards for the book world.