London, England (April 16, 2013) – The acting Board of Directors for Thema (a Board created to support the Thema Global Subject Scheme standard) announced at the London Book Fair today that a pilot draft of the Thema standard has been published. The Thema standard is intended to provide a single unified scheme for the categorization of book content for the global book trade.
The Thema standard has been developed over the last two years with the active participation of working groups representing thirteen countries in Europe and North America, as well as a Pan-Arab Group, under the direction of Thema Technical Committee chair Howard Willows (Senior Manager, Data Development, at Nielsen Book). By combining a robust selection of shared subject categories with an expansive list of subject qualifiers which can contain national variants and extensions, Thema provides a structure that has global application while meeting local needs. The hope is that additional national groups from countries around the world will review, comment on, and ultimately adopt the Thema standard. Interested communities are urged to treat this initial draft as a beta version.
“As publishers and retailers conduct an increasing amount of their business across a multitude of markets, often with distinct cultural and linguistic identities,” said Karina Luke, interim Chair of the Thema Board of Directors, and Executive Director of Book Industry Communication (BIC), “it has become clear that a truly global solution to categorize and classify book content was needed. Thema answers that call.”
Initially designed primarily to support international trading, and not immediately intended to replace market-specific subject codes, such as BIC, BISAC, or CLIL, Thema will greatly reduce the need to map from one scheme to another, and lays the foundation for a future reality in which one classification system will be adopted worldwide.
In addition to the announcement of the publication of the Pilot Draft of the standard, the Thema Board also announced a “sunrise date” of December 31, 2013 for Thema implementation. This is the earliest date by which publishers and others upstream in the supply chain might be expected to include Thema codes in their metadata, and the earliest date by which retailers and others downstream should be expected to accept Thema codes.
“The U.S. market is very pleased to have contributed to the development of the Thema standard through the collaborative efforts of our Working Group,” said Book Industry Study Group Executive Director Len Vlahos. “The creation of a truly global categorization scheme benefits a variety of our members from across the supply chain.” The Thema Working Group, chaired by Kempton Mooney (Senior Analyst of Market Research & Business Development, Hachette Book Group), is a sub group of BISG’s Subject Codes Committee, and includes members from Amazon.com, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, Bowker, Hachette, Ingram, Kobo, and Random House. BISG members interested in participating should contact Len Vlahos at len@bisg.org.
The standard grew out of iBIC, a fledgling subject code project based on version 2.1 of the BIC Subject Category scheme. BIC and Nielsen Book, who jointly owned the intellectual property for iBIC, graciously donated it to the Thema Board of Directors for the creation of the Thema standard.
“With the pilot draft now published,” noted Emad Eldeen Elakehal (MD, Elkotob.com), a Thema Board and Technical Committee member representing the Pan-Arab Group, “we expect interest in and adoption of the standard to ramp up quickly.”
The initial draft of the Thema standard will be available for download from the Thema website (www.panthema.org) by April 20, 2013. Anyone interested in learning more about Thema should contact his or her closest local representative. A list of representatives can be found on the Thema website.
Thema Governance
The organizations involved in the founding of Thema have agreed that the on-going maintenance and development of Thema will be managed in a similar open way to existing standards such as ONIX, through a combination of National Groups, a specialist Technical Committee, and a Steering Body. Details of the constitution, remit, and organization of these groups are being finalized. Participation will be open to all interested parties and is actively encouraged. Full details of how organizations worldwide can engage and participate at the most appropriate level will be forthcoming within the next few weeks.
About the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) is the book industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards, and research. The mission of BISG is to create a more informed, empowered, and efficient book industry. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians, and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. For over 35 years, BISG has provided a forum for all industry professionals to come together and efficiently address issues and concerns to advance the book community. Learn more about BISG at www.bisg.org.
