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Overview

The ONIX for Books Product Information Message is the international standard for representing and communicating book industry product information in electronic form.

Business benefits
For publishers, experience has shown that ONIX for Books brings two important business benefits. As a communications format, it makes it possible to deliver rich product information into the supply chain in a standard form, to wholesalers and distributors, to larger retailers, to data aggregators, and to affiliate companies. And by providing a template for the content and structure of a product record, ONIX has helped to stimulate the introduction of better internal information systems, capable of bringing together all the "metadata" needed for the description and promotion of new and backlist titles. The same core data can also be used to produce advance information sheets, catalogues and other promotional material
For "downstream" supply chain partners, ONIX for Books means more efficient and rapid loading of up-to-date product information into customer-facing systems, with less need for manual intervention and much lower risk of error.

Release history
ONIX for Books Release 1.0 was published in 2000, and was followed by Releases 1.1, 1.2 and 1.2.1. These early releases are no longer supported, and should not be used.

Release 2.0 was published in 2001, and a backwards-compatible Release 2.1 in 2004. Since then there have been only three minor revisions to add functionality which had been requested by specific groups. The last of these was in 2006. Most current usage is based on Release 2.1 .

A new version, Release 3.0, was published in April 2009 and is expected to come into general use in 2010. For the foreseeable future, any new revisions will be based on, and backwards-compatible with, Release 3.0, and we strongly encourage all users to implement it as early as possible.

Code lists
Code lists used in ONIX for Books are maintained and issued separately from the message schemas, with their own issue number sequence which is independent of release numbering. More details, and the latest issue of the code lists, available here.

Updates
Most ONIX exchanges are based on sending complete records, either as new information or to replace information previously supplied. In ONIX 2.1, a separate Supply Update format is provided to enable price and availability detail to be updated without sending a complete replacement record. In ONIX 3.0, a more flexible approach to updating is supported.

Maintenance and support
Maintenance and support are provided through EDItEUR’s ONIX Support Team and through a network of national user groups in a number of countries. Strategic development issues are resolved through an International Steering Committee representing those groups. Find out more. All users are encouraged to sign up to the ONIX for Books implementation listserv, where problems and suggestions for new functionality can be raised and discussed.

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