BISG Town Hall on BISAC Juvenile Subject Codes (webcast)

© 2015, the Book Industry Study Group, Inc.
Book Industry Study Group’s
Subject Codes
Committee
Restructuring BISAC Juvenile Headings for YA Content
March 13, 2015 | 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. eastern daylight time

 Welcome and Introductions
 Antitrust Guidelines
 Reason for Meeting
 Goals for Meeting
 Committee Proposals for Revising Juvenile Sections
 Discussion
 Next Steps

 Increased scrutiny
 No discussion of terms of sale
 No over or tacit suggestion of boycott
 Standards and best practices are voluntary

Q8: Would you find it valuable if BISAC included
specific codes for young adult/ teen content?

Q8: Would you find it valuable if BISAC included
specific codes for young adult/ teen content?
• YES!!!!
• This would at least double sales in the library market,
which believes in more nuanced age ranges
• This would be extremely exciting.
• Hey...you tricked me into saying yes. Of course it
would be valuable. But it would be extremely difficult
for us to implement via a mapping as we only have
two sets of proprietary subjects -- adult and children's.

 3M
 Amazon.com
 Baker & Taylor
 Barnes & Noble
 Bowker
 Capstone
 Hachette
 Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt
 Nielsen
 Penguin Random
House
 Simon & Schuster

 Young adult/teen content would benefit from
its own subject classification:
 Potential sales opportunity
 It has become its own subject
 Awards (esp. ALA awards) tracking
 Helps with unreliable or not provided
audience codes and age/grade ranges

ju·ve·nile
–adjective
of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or suitable or
intended for young persons: juvenile books.
–noun
a young person; youth.
(definitions obtained from dictionary.com)

Juvenile Origins
In LCSH, the term Juvenile
fiction is a subdivision added to
a main term to indicate fiction
titles for children of any age
(including YA).

Juvenile Headings (2014 Edition)
JUV002260 JUVENILE FICTION / Animals / Zoos
JUV003000 JUVENILE FICTION / Art & Architecture
JUV010000 JUVENILE FICTION / Bedtime & Dreams
JUV004000 JUVENILE FICTION / Biographical / General
JNF003200 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Animals / Zoos
JNF004000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Antiques & Collectibles
JNF005000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Architecture
JNF006000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Art / General

Problem & Opportunity
 Increasing awareness of a need felt by many
different quarters of the industry to classify
young adult, and to a lesser extent middle grade
and picture books, as such.
 Seen as opportunity to increase discoverability
and decrease friction by making changes to
BISAC.

Goals for Today’s Meeting
 Presentation of potential solutions to perceived
problem.
 Recommendation from Subject Codes
Committee.
 Q&A and feedback.

Questions at Hand
 What is the issue that this change will resolve?
 What are the expected benefits of such a
change?
 What are the problems this change could
create?
 Does any gain outweigh the time and person
hours that companies will possibly need to
commit to a migration?

Questions at Hand (continued)
 Do the suggested changes to this section
diverge from the real intention of the subject
codes (which is to describe content)?
• Are we relying on the BISAC subject for more than we
should be?
 Is the change being requested simply because
there is an objection to the term “Juvenile”?

Benefits
 Changes may allow for more granular sales
analysis of juvenile titles.
 Provides a standard for age range distinction
between “Children” and “Young Adult”.
• Raises questions: How will age range distinction between
Children and Young Adult be set? Who will set it?
• Publishers must ensure that the BISAC they provide
corresponds to age range.
 In some cases, the changes will force adoption
of newest version of BISAC.

 Potential for massive recoding and migration
issues for both publishers and data aggregators.
 Requires publisher compliance between BISAC
provided and ONIX age range and audience
provided in age range composite.
 Titles spanning the age “cut-off” between
Children and Young Adult (e.g., the Harry Potter
series or Robert Sabuda titles) may lead to
confusion.
Risks

 What if the change is met with resistance and
failure to adopt?
• Parties using different versions will be providing data with a
different meaning than intended.
• Migration must be done at once – you cannot send part of
your list in one edition and part in another edition.
• Failure to implement the changes in a timely and accurate
manner could actually result in lost sales.
• Failure to migrate properly will result in data corruption.
Risks (continued)

ONIX Record
When publishers want to specify age or grade range
in metadata, they populate the Audience or Audience
range composite in their ONIX record. . .

Sample ONIX Record
BISAC Subject
Audience
(Children/Juvenile)
Age Range
(From Age 8 to Age 12)

Proposals
 High level view of potential changes.
 Any new codes or literals shown in these
scenarios are for the purpose of example only
and are subject to change.
 All decisions on specific heading detail will be
discussed and made at subsequent Subject
Codes Committee meetings.
• Presented today are proposed structures – not
specific headings.

Inactivated BISAC Codes
 Codes that the Committee has found are seldom
used, no longer necessary, or better suited
elsewhere in the list.
 Inactivated codes are removed from the edition
of BISAC for which they have been proposed
inactivated.
 Data recipients may reject records sent with
inactivated codes.

Inactivated BISAC Codes (continued)
 The Committee provides guidance for mapping
inactivated headings to a suggested
replacement.
• Examples (from 2014 Edition):
Inactivated code:
ANT042020 (ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Sports Cards / Basketball)
Move to ANT042000 or SPO004000
EDU047000 (EDUCATION / Driver Education)
Move to TRA001080
JUV032050 (JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Miscellaneous)
Move to appropriate code beginning with JUV032

Proposal 1
 Retain existing JUV and JNF sections.
• Potentially change the literals from JUVENILE
FICTION and JUVENILE NONFICTION to
CHILDREN FICTION and CHILDREN NONFICTION.
• The codes would remain as JUV and JNF.
 Create two new sections for YOUNG ADULT
FICTION and YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION.
 Inactivate codes in JUV or JNF sections that
would only apply to Young Adults and move titles
to new section(s).

Proposal 1 Sample
JUV009010 JUVENILE FICTION / Concepts / Alphabet
JUV012030 JUVENILE FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General
JUV016000 JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / General
JUV018000 JUVENILE FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories
JUV051000 JUVENILE FICTION / Imagination & Play
What may be inactivated:
JUV039020 JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence
JUV032100 JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Extreme Sports
JNF015000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Crafts & Hobbies
JNF022000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Gardening
JNF025000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / History / General
JNF036080 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Music / Songbooks
JNF045000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Readers / Beginner
What may be inactivated:
JNF035050 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Mathematics / Geometry
JNF040000 JUVENILE NONFICTION / Philosophy

New sections (potential headings):
YAFXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Fairy Tales & Folklore / General
YAFXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Historical / General
YAFXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories
YAFXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence
YAFXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Extreme Sports
YANXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Careers
YANXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Foreign Language Study / General
YANXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / History / General
YANXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Mathematics / Geometry
YANXXXXXX YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Philosophy
Proposal 1 Sample

Proposal 1 Timeline
 2015 Edition (Fall 2015)
• New sections added with initial headings.
• Existing headings in JUV/JNF sections identified for possible
inactivation.
 Fall 2015 – Fall 2016
• Between the release of the 2015 Edition and the 2016 Edition,
users will need to being moving all titles from JUV/JNF headings
flagged for inactivation (including all backlist).
• All titles with headings flagged for inactivation should be
reclassified with new or existing heading.
• Reclassification guidelines will be provided by Subject
Committee (will not be a one-to-one mapping in all cases).
 2016 Edition (Fall 2016)
• JUV/JNF headings flagged for inactivation in 2015 Edition will be
inactivated and removed.

Proposal 1 Best Practices
Committee will release Best Practices for new
sections with 2015 Edition. This will include:
• Recommendations on the mixing of headings from
top level sections.
• Recommendations on age/grade ranges for use with
Juvenile and Young Adult sections.
Some Best Practices may prove problematic to
companies using fixed ranges for grade and/or
age.

Proposal 1 Expectations
Adopters of most recent editions will be ready for
changes once each edition is released.
• This includes changes to any proprietary mapping tables.
All titles with a heading proposed for inactivation in the
2015 Edition will be reclassified by release of the 2016
Edition (or before implementation of that Edition).
• In the 2016 Edition, codes proposed for inactivation in the
2015 Edition will be removed.
• All backlist with an inactivated code must be reclassified.
• Titles will be moved from inactivated JUV or JNF code to
new Young Adult code.

 We are redefining the underlying meaning of the
code. For example: JUV014000 (JUVENILE
FICTION / Girls & Women) now becomes
CHILDREN FICTION / Girls & Women.
Anything you have in your database retaining
JUV014000, will now be classified as a
Children’s title unless you reclassify it.
 Adopters will need to move YA titles from
JUV/JNF headings to new section. This will not
be a straight one to one mapping in all cases.
Proposal 1 Issues

 This scenario could also leave existing records with a
mixture of Children and YA headings.
• For example, If an existing record has JUV018000 (JUVENILE
FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories) and JUV039020 (JUVENILE
FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence), it may be left with
CHILDREN’S FICTION / Horror & Ghost Stories and YOUNG
ADULT FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence after the change.
 If a data provider has not adopted the newest edition of
the codes, they may assign them with the intention to
mean one thing, and a data recipient who has adopted
the newest edition will interpret the code to mean
something else (or vice versa).
Proposal 1 Issues (continued)

 Creation of new categories for Young Adult Fiction and
Young Adult Nonfiction, which can be shaped to better
reflect unique characteristics of teen titles.
 Separation of teen titles from children’s is more in line with
current marketing practices.
 Timeline will allow all stakeholders time to recode existing
titles and adjust best practices.
 Minimal disruption to existing titles for ages 0-12.
 Easier sales tracking for Young Adult Fiction & Nonfiction
titles.
Proposal 1 Benefits

Proposal 2
Change the main heading to a term less “offensive” than
Juvenile, e.g., CHILDREN & TEEN FICTION, CHILDREN
& TEEN NONFICTION or CHILDREN & YA FICTION,
CHILDREN & YA NONFICTION.
• Nothing would change except the literals – codes would remain
the same and retain their same meaning.
Add additional headings to these sections to make them
considerably more robust.
• New headings would be more specific than those that currently
exist.
• The fiction headings would be brought more in line with the adult
FICTION section.

Proposal 2 Sample
Literal Changes:
JUV053000
JUVENILE FICTION / Science Fiction 
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Science Fiction
JNF059000
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Clothing & Dress 
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Clothing & Dress

Proposal 2 Sample
Possible Additions:
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Fantasy / Epic
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Fantasy / Urban
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Romance / Paranormal
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Romance / Time Travel
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Art / Subjects &
Themes / Portraits
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Body, Mind & Spirit /
Astrology
CHILDREN & YOUNG ADULT NONFICTION / Crafts & Hobbies /
Needlework

Proposal 2 Timeline
 This proposal could start being implemented for
the 2015 Edition.
 Nothing more than heading additions and literal
changes.
• These take place in every new edition.
 New headings would be added over time as
needed or requested.

Proposal 2 Details
 As in Proposal 1, decisions will be made within Subject
Committee as to what headings will be added.
• These decisions will be discussed by Committee and not be
vetted for BISG opinion.
• Final proposals will be distributed to BISG for final approval
after edition close (as in previous years).
 New heading proposals or literal changes can be
submitted to Committee for review.
• The same guidelines for approving new headings will apply
(e.g., over 100 unique titles from different publishers).

 Age range, grade range, or audience must be provided on
all records.
• Records lacking this information would still not be identifiable as YA.
 Since Children’s and YA titles are not shelved together in a
bookstore, this solution is not solving the retailer problem.
 Growth of JUV and JNF lists might be considerable.
 This proposal has least amount of disruption as it consists
of only new codes and literal changes.
• Backlist may still need to be reclassified to add a more descriptive
heading, but would not have to be.
Proposal 2 Issues

 Minimal disruption to existing children’s and teen
titles and sections.
 Terminology more user-friendly and in line with
what teens themselves use.
 Expedited timeline.
 Minimal need for recoding of existing titles.
Proposal 2 Benefits

Proposal 3
Inactivate all existing JUVENILE FICTION and
JUVENILE NONFICTION subject codes.
Add five new sections:
• Children’s Picture Books (ages 0-7)
• Middle Grade Fiction (ages 8-12)
• Middle Grade Nonfiction (ages 8-12)
• Teen/YA Fiction (ages 13-18)
• Teen/YA Nonfiction (ages 13-18)

Proposal 3 Sample
(Codes and literals are examples only and would be subject to change)
Children’s Picture Books (ages 0-7)
Examples:
CPBXXXXXX Animals / Bears
CPBXXXXXX Concepts / Colors
CPBXXXXXX Bedtime & Dreams
Middle Grade Fiction (ages 8-12)
Examples:
MGFXXXXXX Family / Parents
MGFXXXXXX Horror & Ghost Stories
MGFXXXXXX School & Education
Middle Grade Nonfiction (ages 8-12)
Examples:
MNFXXXXXX Careers
MHFXXXXXX Girls & Women
MNFXXXXXX History / Medieval

Proposal 3 Sample (continued)
(Codes and literals are examples only and would be subject to change)
Teen/YA Fiction (ages 13-18)
Examples:
YAFXXXXXX Dystopian
YAFXXXXXX Love & Romance
YAFXXXXXX Steampunk
Teen/YA Nonfiction (ages 13-18)
Examples:
YNFXXXXXX LGBT
YNFXXXXXX Music / Popular
YNFXXXXXX Social Issues / Dating & Sex

Proposal 3 Timeline
Committee would consider making this proposal
a stepped approach.
JUV/JNF sections would be left intact for the next
edition of the codes (i.e., 2015 Edition). Adopters
will have the opportunity to move titles from JUV
and JNF to new headings over extended period
of time.
May consider an interim edition in Spring 2016.

Proposal 3 Timeline (continued)
In time, all JUV and JNF codes would then be inactivated.
The Subject Committee would provide a suggested
mapping table from the JUV and JNF codes to the newly
created ones.
• Mapping table could only work with accurate grade/age data.
This allows for a longer term migration plan as the JUV
and JNF codes would not be inactivated immediately –
only frozen (the recommendation being to stop assigning
these codes).

Proposal 3 Best Practices
Same as Proposal 1.
Committee will release Best Practices for new sections
with 2015 Edition. This will include:
• Recommendations on the mixing of headings from top level
sections.
• Recommendations on age/grade ranges for use with Juvenile
and Young Adult sections.
Some Best Practices may prove problematic to
companies using fixed ranges for grade and/or age.

Proposal 3 Expectations
Adopters of most recent editions will be ready for
changes once each edition is released.
• This includes changes to any proprietary mapping tables.
During transition period, the JUV and JNF codes should
only be used for retrospective data. New records should
only be assigned the new codes.
Once transition is complete, no one will have JUV/JNF
codes retained in their database.

 We would be inactivating about 647 codes
resulting in significant updates to titles.
 Records with JUV/JNF headings but no
age/grade range might be difficult to map.
• May require manual reclassification.
 May end up with titles that are not Picture Books
but not quite Middle Grade – where do they go?
Proposal 3 Issues

 Adopters would be given adequate timeframe
for removal of inactivated codes.
 Not adopting newest editions of BISAC will
result in data loss for your data recipients.
 Some concern that Proposal 3 would become as
difficult to implement as ONIX 3.0 has been.
• No change proposed to overall structure of BISAC
Subjects.
• Codes will remain AAA######.
Proposal 3 Issues

 Rather than modifying existing categories, this represents
a completely new hierarchy.
 New category divisions better reflect current bookstore
organization and marketing practices.
 New subject hierarchies can be created that better reflect
unique characteristics of each group of titles.
 Better sales tracking of picture books, middle grade titles
and teen titles.
 Clear age range demarcation between different categories.
Proposal 3 Benefits

Heading Details (Proposals 1, 2, 3)
Decisions will be made within Subject Committee as to
what headings will be added and inactivated.
• These decisions will be discussed by Committee and not be
vetted for BISG opinion.
• Final proposals will be distributed to BISG for final approval after
edition close (as in previous years).
New heading proposals or literal changes can be
submitted to Committee for review.
• The same guidelines for approving new headings will apply (e.g.,
over 100 unique titles from different publishers).
Inactivations will be determined based on titles counts
acquired through research of various databases.

Proposal 4
 Do nothing – leave both sections as is because
they already convey what the BISAC subject is
intended to.
 Continue to rely on the age/grade range fields to
convey specific audience information.
• Data providers must strive to provide accurate
information.

Proposal 4 Issues
 We will probably be having this same discussion
several years down the road.
 Disappointment from some quarters of the
industry.

Proposal 4 Benefits
 Use of existing metadata fields.
• BISAC category in conjunction with Audience Code
already provides teen subjects.
 No recoding necessary.
 No disruption to existing titles.

Recommended Proposal
 Based on exhaustive discussions and data review,
the Subject Committee recommends Proposal 1.
 Proposal 1 most meets the needs being expressed
by the industry while being only minimally disruptive
to users.
• Will require significant recoding of backlist titles.
• Will require data recipients to adjust proprietary mapping
tables.
• May result in extensive clean-up of existing titles.

Next Steps

Next Steps
Gauge industry feedback from proposals presented today.
Discuss feedback among Subject Committee (March
2015).
Agree on approach to changes as a committee (March
2015).
Begin discussion of specific headings (April 2015).
Issue new edition of Subjects with first round of changes
(Fall 2015).

Discussion?
Contact:
Connie Harbison
Chair, BISAC Subject Codes Committee
connie.harbison@baker-taylor.com

BISG Town Hall on BISAC Juvenile Subject Codes (webcast)

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Editor's Notes