The Challenge of Disseminating Metadata on Library Published, Open-Access Books

This presentation will delve into the challenges open-access book publishers face with the current metadata supply chain, as well as attempts to address these challenges. It uses the case of Thoth, an open-metadata dissemination service currently under development as part of the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project, to discuss some of the strategies scholar-led publishers and university presses are devising to amplify the discoverability of their books. Open access disrupts established book distribution channels because of its (1) orientation away from a sales process measured by units sold or licensed, (2) need for different kinds of metadata such as DOIs, which have yet to be implemented consistently across the supply chain, and (3) the emergence of a large number of new open-access content platforms that require a variety of metadata formats for deposit. Library publishers who seek to widen the discoverability of their books need to know about the current state and direction of the book supply chain, metadata standards used beyond the library, and workflows bottlenecks when working with data intermediaries. The goal of the presentation is first, to help library publishers learn more about the book metadata supply chain, and second, to prompt a discussion of whether emerging data intermediaries are adequately addressing the specific needs of library publishers.