Metadata are the digital engine of the book industry. They increase the visibility, traceability and thus the sales figures of books. Therefore, dealing with metadata is essential in order to market a publication successfully. With VLB (the German books in Print), MVB provides the entire book industry with a central meta database, is a supporting contact on the topic of metadata management and drives the development of new standards.

In times of constant digital change metadata is an elementary topic for the book industry that will continue to grow in importance. MVB leads the way thanks to the permanent development of VLB. Technological progress and quality optimisation of metadata are going hand in hand. Automated routines and reports support publishers in their work. At the same time, VLB’s data managers are reliable contacts who support publishers with evaluations and analyses in improving their metadata quality.

With the same passion displayed by the MVB employees in their daily work with metadata, they contribute to the industry. For many publishers, maintaining and optimising metadata is a major challenge in an environment that is becoming increasingly technically complex. With professional consulting, MVB provides orientation and highlights practicable solutions. Since, on the bookseller side, metadata are not less important, MVB also offers support for the profitable use of metadata for booksellers.

The successful use of metadata in the book industry is based on uniform standards and their constant development, in which MVB is actively involved. All industry participants benefit from the implementation of standards such as ONIX 3.0 and the topic classification into the VLB. These standards emerge in productive collaboration, which MVB practises in initiatives such as IG Produktmetadaten and in day-to-day dialogue with companies from the industry. It is thus ensured that the wealth of experience from everyday business and current expert know how produce promising metadata solutions.