Once you have your ebooks, covers, and metadata ingested in CoreSource, you can streamline your workflow to push those files out to CataList. Here’s how:
Ensure that BiblioShare, BookNet Canada’s bibliographic data aggregation service, is set up as a distribution channel in your CoreSource account. If it’s missing, or you would like to automate metadata updates instead of sending them manually, please contact our Manager of Technology.
Check that your ebook metadata includes the required CataList fields. The fields that are required are: Publishing Status; Publication Date; Title; List Price; Subject; Publisher; Product Form. It is recommended that you indicate a main BISAC subject to ensure that CataList displays the correct subject for your ebook. Not sure how to assign a main BISAC subject in CoreSource? Check out this quick tutorial.
To check for missing data in the CataList required fields, you can run a Metadata Extract report from CoreSource, and filter in Excel to find any missing information. To do this, go to Reports in CoreSource, and select Metadata Extract:
Select Time Period: All, and choose export to Excel format. Click on Export on the top right corner.
Open the Excel file. Select the header row, and choose Data > Filter > Auto Filter.
You can now select one of the required field column’s drop down, and choose to view only “Blank” values, to see where metadata needs to be added in CoreSource for CataList.
Once your data is fulsome and up-to-date, run a search in CoreSource on the ebooks you would like to have in CataList.
Send a Pre-Pub Distribution to your BiblioShare distribution channel in CoreSource. This will send your ebook metadata and cover files to BiblioShare. If you only have changes to data to send, and have already delivered covers, you can send a Metadata-Only Distribution.
Once you’ve distributed, check your distribution job status to ensure that there are no errors. The data will be pushed to BiblioShare immediately, but it is best to allow for at least one week before that data is made available in CataList. After your data is available in CataList, be sure to check to see if any covers are missing, or if any data needs to be corrected.
Pro Tip
eBOUND recommends, as per BISG, to assign a unique ISBN for each ebook format including MOBI, if you have the file yourself and are not relying on Amazon to convert them. If you use the same ISBN for your EPUB and MOBI, or even your PDF, data overwrites when it is sent out in the supply chain, and will not allow you to add both formats in CataList. It can also scramble your metadata from different formats with the same ISBN, in the same record in CataList.
Don’t worry, you have options! You can follow best practice and assign a unique ISBN to your EPUB, and to your MOBI files.
Or, you can work around this by contacting our Digital Services Coordinator to turn off your MOBI metadata distribution to BiblioShare. This will allow your EPUBs to be distributed and catalogued correctly; readers will also be able to easily search by that ISBN to find your title on Amazon.