Digital object identifiers for eBooks: What are we identifying?

Publishing Research Quarterly

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 29-36

  Mooney, Stephen ^a  

^a Stephen P Mooney Associates LLC   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 19744379621     PISSN: 10538801     EISSN: 19364792     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s12109-001-0004-5     Document Type: Article

References (25)

1. See www.bn.com
2. The presentation may be viewed in its entirety at www.publishers.org
3. Also available at www.publishers.org
4. "Digital rights management (DRM), the technologies, tools and processes that protect intellectual property during digital content commerce, is a vital building block of the emerging electronic book (eBook) market. DRM creates an essential foundation of trust between authors and consumers that is a prerequisite for robust market development." See Digital Rights Management for eBooks, version 1.0, Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000 at 6.
5. "The transition from physical to electronic content distribution necessitates a set of common policies and procedures to uniquely identify individual pieces of content in an Internet based economy. As such, the proposed numbering standards are intended to provide publishers with a set of voluntary guidelines to uniquely identify eBooks and eBook components." See Numbering Standards for eBooks, version 1.0, Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000 at 7.
6. Creating an enjoyable consumer experience is a primary concern for publishers and authors of eBooksor any other content. This involves not only creating a quality product, but also creating accurate, detailed, descriptive product information - metadata-to help consumers locate desired titles and make informed decisions about acquiring them. Several elements of the current eBook metadata process flow create potential barriers for publishers creating and consumers enjoying the best consumer experience possible. See Metadata Standards for eBooks, version 1.0 Association of American Publishers, New York, NY and Washington, D.C. USA, November 2000 at 7.
7. See Bide, Mark, In Search of the Unicorn, The Digital Object Identifier from a User Perspective, BNBRF Report 89, Book Industry Communications, London, February 1998.
8. See also Bernstein, Paula, DOI: A New Identifier for Digital Content. Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals, Vol. 6, No. 1, Jan. 1998.
9. See also The DOI Handbook, version 0.5.1, The International DO1 Foundation, Washington, D.C. USA and Geneva, Switzerland, September 2000.
10. The EBX draft defines an eBook to be "a digital object that is an electronic representation of a book. While an e-Book can consist of a single page, it is normally thought of as an electronic analog of a multi-page hardcover or paperback book. An eBook may exist in a variety of formats⋯" The Electronic Book Exchange System, version 0.8, Book Industry Study Group, New York, New York, USA, July 2000, at 6, www.ebxwg.org
11. The OeBF draft defines an e-Book as "short for electronic book. 1. A Literary Work in the form of a Digital Object, consisting of one or more standard Unique Identifiers, metadata, and a Monographic body of content, intended to be published and accessed electronically. 2. May also refer to the hardware device created for the purpose of reading eBooks (RocketBook, SoftBook, Franklin e-bookman)," A Framework for epublishing Ecology, Public Comment Draft, version 0.78, The Open eBook Forum, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 25 September 2000, at 6, www.openeBook.org
12. First commented upon by Norman Paskin, Director, International DOI Foundation, Washington, D.C. USA and Geneva, Switzerland and Mark Bide, Mark Bide and Associates, London, United Kingdom.
13. The ONIX draft speaks of: • "⋯EBook content-a package of text and other content which a publisher puts together in order to be realized in one or more eBook formats⋯" • "⋯EBook rendering-a realization of an eBook content package in a particular format for a particular eBook reader or family of readers, whether for downloading for local use of by remote online access⋯" • "⋯EBook component-a portion of text or other content which is used or available to be used in electronic form as part of an "eBook content package⋯" Draft ONIX International eBook Proposals for Release 1.2, September 22, 2000, Editeur c/o Book Industry Communication, London, United Kingdom, September 22, 2000 at 3.
14. See Paskin, Norman. Digital Object Identifier: Implementing a Standard Digital Identifier as a key to effective Digital Rights Management, International DOI Foundation, Washington, D.C. USA and Geneva, Switzerland, April 2000.
15. See also Erickson, John. The Role of Metadata Supply Chains in DOI-Based, Value-added Services. ICSTI Forum, Quarterly Newsletter of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information, No. 30, April 1999.
16. See also Bide, Mark and Rust, Godfrey, Interoperability of data in e-Commerce Systems, www.indecs.org
17. See my comments in Minutes of the Technical Committee of the Electronic Book Exchange (EBX) Working Group, 11-12 July 2000, Maynard, Massachusetts, USA.
18. See also my three additional presentations: DRM and Digital Distribution for Publishing, San Francisco, August 2000
19. International Rights Directors Meeting, Frankfurt, October 2000
20. Forum on DOI, Frankfurt, October 2000. I would be happy to supply these upon request.
21. See Preserving Digital hzformation, Report of the Taskforce on Archiving of Digital Information, Commission on Preservation and Access and the Research Libraries Group, Mountain View, California, USA, 1 May 1996
22. See ONIX International, Editeur, London, United Kingdom, www.editeur.org.
23. See also Lagoze, Carl. Accommodating Simplicity and Complexity in Metadata: Lessons from the Dublin Core Experience, Presented at Seminar on Metadata, Organized by Archiefschool, Netherlands Institute for Archival Education and Research, June 8, 2000.
24. See also Neylon, Eamonn, EBX Metadata Specification, version 0.4, 23 October 2000, draft currently under review by EBX Technical Committee.
25. Felici, Jim, E-books on the Ramparts at Frankfurt Book Fair 2000, The Seybold Report on Internet Publishing, November 2000, vol. 5 no. 3, Seybold, Media, Pennsylvania, USA, p. 29.