ProQuest affiliate Bowker is turning the heat up on its role as a key partner in book discovery, providing solutions that help publishers, booksellers and libraries better serve their customers. The company has an over 140 year history of organising data that enables books and information to find their way from publishers to users efficiently and accurately. With an expanded focus on both identifier services and development of the Books In Print database, Bowker expects to power more organisations' efforts to connect books with readers.
Bowker founded Books In Print in 1948, moving the publishing industry forward with the first go-to resource for finding books published. The database has continued to grow and develop, becoming a rich source of bibliographic data that enables discovery for a wide variety of libraries and retailers. The company compiles the data directly with publishers and through its essential role in the registration of ISBNs.
For more than 40 years, Bowker has been the official registration agency for ISBNs in the United States and its territories, as well as Australia. Working directly with the spectrum of publishers – from the largest to the growing numbers of self-published authors - Bowker enables organisations and individuals to market their works more effectively.
The company's role in standardising information to enrich metadata continues to expand. In 2012, Bowker was named an official registration agency for ISNIs (International Standard Name Identifier), which is enabling greater accuracy of information about public identities by disambiguating similar and alternative names of authors, illustrators, scholars, and more.
