Uploading Bibliographic Title Data in Bulk

You can upload titles in bulk by using an Onix file, an Excel spread sheet or a CSV file. This page details how to upload via a file other than Onix. For information about uploading ONIX, look at this link.

It is important to note that you can only add identifiers, titles or sub titles in bulk on the first upload. This includes ISBN's and EAN13's, for example. So if you try to upload either of them after the titles have been added, the information will not be stored. You will have to do it manually. 

For a list of all of the available fields that you can upload, please see here. Please note that you must include an identifier in your data, for example, an ISBN13.

See here for general guidelines on uploading data, which will help you format your data correctly. 

Once your spreadsheet is ready to upload, follow the steps below. 

1. Login to your Stison account. 

2. Navigate to the Book list window, choosing Title Manager then Books.

3. Click on the Upload button in the top right hand corner.

4. A new window will appear.

5. Click on the Choose File button and browse to find your file on your local machine.

6. Select the file and click Update.

7. The organisation will automatically be populated with your publisher. You can change this if appropriate.

8. You can also indicate the encoding used in the file, where appropriate. In most cases, this will not be necessary.

9. If you are importing multiple contributors against a title, please select 'Import Multiple Contributors'

10. The system will import the file and show you the first few rows of the spread sheet. You should then map the column headings in your file to match the import headings in the system. To do so, click on the column heading in the purple bar, and a list of options will be brought up. You can choose to ignore columns as well.

11. Once you are happy that the mappings are correct, click on the Process file button at the bottom of the screen. 

Please be patient as it can take time for the system to process depending on the size of the spreadsheet. The data should be happily uploaded.

NB - you will get a notification on your mail icon when the system has completed the upload. Click on 'Data Upload Report' to view the report.  

There could be items listed above the 'All Done' note stating that title records could not be found. This is simply stating the titles were not already on the system, and so the system will create new identifiers for them. This is not an error message at all. Here is a screen shot of what we mean. Even though it appears that there are errors, there really aren't. .

Please note that our recommendation when uploading large amounts of data in bulk via this feature is that you first test out the upload with one or two titles only. Get a sense of how the system works so that when are you comfortable, you can start uploading more data. We also suggest uploading spreadsheets with a few sets of columns at a time to avoid any confusion when mapping the headings on the Stison system.

We suggest uploading the following combinations as a starting point and in this order. We have determined this list using the bibliographic data aggregators' required fields. In addition to the items below, best practice is to also have a cover image alongside your data. There is further information available regarding cover images.

• ISBN 13, Title, Sub Title, Publication Date, Publishing Status, Supplier
• ISBN 13, Height, Width, Page count, Illustration note
• ISBN 13, Long Description, Short Description, Main description
• ISBN 13, Contributor Name, Contributor Role, Biographical Statement
• ISBN 13, BISACs, BICs, Themas and other categories (please note that key words must be demarcated on your spreadsheet with semi-colons)
• ISBN 13, Rights, Price Type, Price (USD, for instance), Supplier, Product Availability - please note that when mapping the rights, if you are uploading mixed rights information, that you will need to separate them into different columns that you will then map to the system as one of the following listed in the screenshot:

NOTE: in a multiple worksheet xls, only the first worksheet will be imported. 

If you are uploading a few aspects, for example keywords, you can either create one big spreadsheet or create a spread sheet just for keywords, a separate spreadsheet for descriptions, etc. In column A, you should add the ISBN13, then create a column for each data set you want to upload. If there are multiple values for each then these should be separated by a semicolon.

Tips & Tricks

Whilst the upload process is designed to be as user friendly as possible, and in most instances the column mapping should be intuitive, there are a few instances where you may need additional guidance on how to upload your data. We have detailed those that we think fall into this category below. If you feel there are other areas that would benefit from greater guidance, please let us know by emailing [e-mail].

• Uploading Prices, or amending price related information
• Bulk Uploading Reviews
• Bulk Uploading Contributor to Title Records
• Bulk Uploading Thema, Bic and Bisac
• Uploading Onix Adult Audience Rating
• Uploading Additional Formats
• Uploading Product Form Detail
• Uploading Sales Rights