Metadata Minute (Issue #13): Understanding Collections, Sets, and Series in ONIX 3.0

Books are often related to other books in interesting ways. Communicating those relationships can be difficult, but ONIX has some tools to help you do so effectively. We are all familiar with the idea of a book Series or a boxed Set. I dare say we have all read through at least one such collection in our life (though I must say that if the World Book Encyclopedia is the series you have completed, I want to shake your hand).

In the language of ONIX 3, Sets and Series are both considered to be “Collections,” but Collections can include much more than just those. An ONIX Collection is defined as “any group of two or more items that has some attribute(s) in common.” I know, that’s not really very descriptive. Essentially, Collections come down to two main categories: Bibliographic Collections and Multiple-Item Products.

Bibliographic Collection: This is any collection of works that is given a unique combined identity. Within this broad category we find Publisher Collections, which includes what we all recognize as a Series (like The Chronicles of Narnia or A Song of Ice and Fire). However, a Bibliographic collection might also be defined by someone other than the publisher (such as a retailer), in which case it is called an Ascribed Collection. Bibliographic Collections can also be broken down into smaller collections called Sub-Collections when the need arises.
Multiple-Item product: This is a collection that is retailed as a single product, which includes what we all recognize as Sets but also covers multi-packs, trade packs, etc. So, The Chronicles of Narnianovels packaged together in a boxed set would be considered a multi-item product, as would a collection of the books (or just one of them) combined with other memorabilia items.

In ONIX 3, the <Collection> composite is used to express these relationships.

Bibliographic collections can get really interesting, too, because in addition to just saying “this is a series,” you can also define different orders that might apply to the series using the <CollectionSequence> composite.

For example, if you are familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia, there is an order within which the books were originally published, and there is a chronological order that the books follow in the story, and the two are not the same. The Magician’s Nephew can be considered 6th in publication order but 1st in temporal or narrative story order.

This would be defined in ONIX in this way:

For more information and rules on how to create product records in ONIX for titles in a collection, please consult the ONIX application note How to describe sets, series and multiple-item products in ONIX 3, compiled by EDItEUR, BISG, and BIC.

BISG also provides some great examples in their webinar: “How to Effectively Describe Series and Sets in Your Metadata,” taught by EDItEUR’s Graham Bell.

A quick caveat about the use of Collections. As with many things in the world of metadata distribution, support for the Collections composite may vary. We recommend being cautious about how you implement this with your trading partners (especially if you have more… intricate… collection setups).

Also, note that the Collections composite is new in ONIX 3, so this does not work for partners who only take ONIX 2.1 and is likely to not be possible in spreadsheets. Hopefully these tips helped you better understand ONIX 3.0 in terms of collections.

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