South African Publications Network

In a constant effort to bring SA Booksellers’ members and readers of Bookmark up to date information that is both relevant and valuable, we’re proud to announce that from the September issue, Bookmark will be working with South African data supplier, SAPnet (South African Publications Network) to bring you quarterly “Top Best Sellers” Reports for the General Trade, as well as updates and informative snippets about their services to the book industry.

Passionate about all things data-related, CEO Freda van Wyk gave us a rundown of how they see a future where more books get sold, more often, in more ways, using that oft-misunderstood commodity, metadata. SAPnet are a leading producer and supplier of bibliographic and other content rich metadata, supplying enriched data on products encompassing the book, music, video, TV, technology and other manufacturing industries. Their sales statistics services for the book-industry have been running for nearly a decade (making them one of the longest running sales statistics service for books on the globe) and, says Freda, “There has been so much diversification going on – publishers, booksellers, academic institutions and libraries have all had to review their business processes and systems, and with the ever looming growth of online retailing and e-books, there is definitely a growing awareness of the importance of good quality metadata”.

SAPnet is also the exclusive product partner in South Africa for Nielsen, Rovi and Softlink, alongside their own, South-African focussed data products and services. These play a critical role in understanding and analysing local book industry needs.

SA BookSearch.co.za
SA Booksearch allows subscribers to search over 5 million South African titles available through market agents and publishers in South Africa. This online service was originally developed in 2004 as simple means for booksellers to validate ISBN’s and titles, thereby providing the necessary information for the booksellers to procure titles from the various publishers and distributors, but has now been extended by adding stock levels, availability, shipping estimates and prices from various publishers and distributors. It also has valuable features like the “Top 10” (the top 10 best sellers in Fiction, Non-fiction, Children’s -Fiction and -Non-fiction of South African titles each week) based on SABookScan charts.

SA Textbooks.net
This web allows tertiary institutions to pre-compile their lists of required prescribed and recommended textbooks online well before they make the information available in a standardized format to all stakeholders (i.e. libraries, publishers, bookshops and students). But more importantly, the platform is capable of integrating with the current acquisition software of the library, where a customized process of approval for the acquisition of selected titles aligns with the business processes of the institution.

RPG Online
Through the RPG-Online platform, SAPnet has been streamlining the way South African publishers enter and access data for their own titles. They can easily update their imprints, and enter and edit correct metadata for their current or backlist titles. It is this input of good quality (“healthy”) data which enables other role players in the book industry to supply their clients with more efficient and effective services – from viewing and evaluating titles, to searching and checking real time stock levels, and ordering titles from the publishers and distributors.

Ikhatalogu
Through this service, libraries can have on-demand access to MARC21 records, BookData MARC and BookData Multimedia MARC as well as a core record service in XML and CSV file format.

Softlink and Rovi
SAPnet is the exclusive distributor for Softlink (an integrated Library management system) and the Rovi Corporation (focussed on digital entertainment technology) in South Africa.

Nielsen in South Africa
SAPnet’s offering from Nielsen can be divided into two parts – Nielsen BookData, with two main products – BookData Online, which offers a highly specialised, professional bibliographic search tool, and Record Supply Service (RSS Feed), which delivers metadata feeds, customized to online retailers and intranet users’ specifications.

The second part is the BookScan sales ranking service, the world’s first continuous retail monitoring service for books, based on electronic point of sales data. It provides quantitative sales statistics for consumer book purchases in many countries, including South Africa. These statistics support decision making for the trade and related industries and performs a crucial role in dealings between distributors and publishers. By subscribing to Nielsen BookScan, Booksellers can expand their business by tapping into accurate business information, allowing them to review stock selections and make space for new titles by identifying titles that should be returned, identifying and selecting top sellers, and accessing in-depth analysis to find niche genres.

Systems like these are only possible with a “From the bottom up” approach, where good, reliable and “healthy” data is imperative as the starting point. SAPnet are able to generate, and work with highly specialised data forms, which uniquely positions them to assist South African Booksellers and key role players to unlock the full potential of metadata to enable them to sell more books, more often.