BIC Metadata Capabilities Directory 3.0

Please refer to the Metadata Capabilities Directory webpage for additional project documentation.

Thank you for agreeing to contribute to this survey, which is copyright to BIC.

The survey enables your organisation to participate in the Metadata Capabilities Directory. 

The MCD has been developed as the first phase of the Metadata Map project, which seeks to detail the way book metadata flows through the UK supply chain

•  from data creators such as publishers,
•  through intermediaries such as data aggregators and wholesalers, 
•  through to data consumers such as retailers and libraries. 

Contributing to the survey will allow you to access the Directory containing information submitted by all other organisations participating in the project, provided you are a BIC member and have met the minimum contribution criteria.

Main points to note:

• The Metadata Capabilities Directory is currently open only to BIC members. Those booksellers that are members of the BA are regarded as Associate members of BIC solely for the purpose of participating in MCD. They should therefore confirm that they are members of BIC when asked to do so in the survey. 
• If you are not a member you will not have access to the MCD. If you would like more information about joining BIC please visit https://bic.org.uk/join/ or email info@bic.org.uk
• All submissions to the survey will require organisations to identify themselves with the information they provide - anonymous contributions are not currently permitted.
• The data collected by this survey, including any personal contact details, are to be used solely for the development of the BIC Metadata Capabilities Directory.
• The survey has been built using Jotform, who have a range of GDPR compliance measures in place. Data will be stored on Jotform's EU-based servers, and on BIC's Google Drive and Dropbox accounts. 
• All data provided by you in this survey (other than data points specifically identified for admin purposes) will be made available to all other participants in the Capabilities Directory and will also be subject to the MCD Terms of Reference, the MCD Code of Practice and BIC's Privacy Policy documentation. You will be requested to accept these terms and conditions at the end of the survey.

Please indicate below how your organisation uses Product Metadata.

Consider all aspects of your organisation's metadata activities.

Important note: the following question determines how the rest of the survey behaves - ie what questions you will need to respond to.

It may, therefore, take some time before your choice is registered.

Please select the most appropriate description, click 'Next' once and wait patiently! 

Please ensure that all questions are answered where appropriate and as fully as possible, representing the current status at your organisation. To encourage fully complete responses a Minimum Level of Contribution threshold will be applied to all survey submissions. This will be measured by the over-use of the following response option, which is available to many questions in the survey:

"We are unable, or chose not to provide a response to this question."

Selecting this option in more than 10% of survey questions where this option is available to use, will render your submission incomplete, and you will not have access to the aggregated responses from other organisations in the Capabilities Directory until this is rectified. You will be contacted by BIC Administrators should this occur.

• There are no right or wrong answers. Responses should represent current conditions that apply to metadata activity in your organisation (rather than future planned activity, or 'best practice' advice in product metadata) or any activity by any other organisation with whom you share/delegate data distribution responsibility.
• The purpose of the MCD is to record current metadata activity and processes across the book trade, to show what really happens in the metadata supply chain. This information, in turn, is expected to enable the identification of possible beneficial behaviour and/or system changes by individual organisations to improve the flow of valuable product data through the supply chain.
• The survey is divided into two main sections: a set of questions aimed at Suppliers of metadata and the second set for Recipients. The survey will present questions from one or both sections dependent on your answer to the 'Metadata User Type' question. Please complete all questions.
  In addition, each main section is sub-divided into multiple sections, grouping questions into themed areas of activity.
• Depending on your own level of metadata activity, the entire survey may take several hours to complete and may also require consultation with other colleagues in your organisation to reach the appropriate level of detail required.
  It is therefore possible for you to pause and save your answers and then resume editing at a later time. Please use the 'Save and Resume' function which appears at the bottom of each page. This creates an emailed link which will return the user to the beginning of the survey, but with all previously provided answers retained. Click through the answered sections of the survey using the 'Next' button to navigate to the next unanswered question.
• These links can be shared within your organisation to allow others to complete the next section where their expertise may be required. Please be careful to use only one 'Save and Resume' link at any time and in strict sequence, otherwise it may result in lost data.
• Please note that whilst we encourage you to share the survey with your colleagues (particularly to ensure completeness and accuracy) neither the survey questions, nor your responses, should be shared with anyone outside of your organisation.

The BIC Metadata Capabilities Directory is only open to BIC members.

If you continue with the survey and you are not a member, the answers you provide will still be included in the aggregated MCD and available to be seen by users, but your organisation will not have access to the MCD itself. 

The Metadata Capabilities Directory is published within a secure location where access is only granted to the personal email address of authorised contributors to the survey. 

Please provide the name of the Primary Contact completing the survey, who has the authority to represent the full scope of metadata activity by your organisation and who will have access to the MCD containing all submissions from all other participants.

PLEASE NOTE that neither the Primary Contact name or email address will be published within the MCD, but held separately and securely by BIC Administrators.

Note: If the ISBN is used as the record reference in a file, it is only unique to the product, not unique to the metadata record. If this is so, please answer 'No'

For more information on the Best Practice use of the Sub-Title field please see this BIC Press Release (opens in new window)

For additional information on the Thema subject classification scheme see BIC Bite BICBitesThema (opens in new window)For additional information on Keywords see BICBiteKeywords (opens in new window)

Prior to completing this section, you may wish to review the information provided in the BIC Bite on Rights BICBiteRights (opens in new window)

Please refer to the BIC Bite on returns for further clarification on the question related to returns data BICBiteReturns.

For more information on the BIC Basic standard, ONIX, or using the BIC Realtime message, follow these links:

BIC Basic: BICBiteBICBasic

ONIX: BICBiteONIX

BIC Realtime: BICRealtime

For further information on the ISNI (International Standard Name Identifier) please read the BIC Bite on the subject BICBitesISNI.

Before completing this section you may like to review the information provided in the BIC Bite on Rights BICBiteRights to clarify the differences between Publishing, Sales and Distribution Rights and restrictions