Workflow Committee Charter (2025)

Defining Workflow

For the purposes of this committee, workflow is defined as the intersection of process (what gets done), technology (the tools used to get work done), and organization (the people, structures, and companies that work to deliver agreed-upon goods and services). The workflow committee focuses on standards and best practices for the development of content, metadata, and tools required to deliver book content across departments, organizations, and industry segments.

Current State

Existing publishing workflows are not well documented or understood, and success is not clearly defined. Cross-segment workflows can be siloed, limiting communications. Undocumented workflows may not deliver on their requirements. Without comprehensive analysis, problems and their solutions can be difficult to identify.

Effective workflows are central to facilitating work in remote, in-office, or  hybrid environments and sustains productivity when blending or shifting work models. Platforms and tools used to support both in-person and remote work have also prompted consideration of the privacy and ethics concerns associated with their use. Legal requirements, including those of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the European Accessibility Act (EAA), increasingly rely on workflows that address diversity, inclusion, and accessibility for anyone who is print-disabled.

In the past few years, the impact of AI tools and technologies on how book publishing operates have been both of great interest and increasing concern. In the past year, amidst ongoing concerns, we've seen increasing acceptance of the incorporation of AI tools into publishing workflows, and the introduction of AI-enabled publishing workflows.

Objectives

• Promote BISG examples of effective workflows, within and across segments.
• Discuss, identify, and document best practices and identify approaches to selecting tools and resources required to improve approaches already in place.
• Maintain workflow-related guides and best practices to ensure that BISG resources address current and anticipated industry opportunities and challenges, including accessibility, audiobooks and AI as topics.

Stakeholder Impact/Benefits

Existing workflows have been developed as responses to prevailing conditions, with little access to best practice or alternative resources. The workflow committee’s efforts can help close information gaps, foster best practice and increase awareness of available tools and how they might be used. In turn, this can improve perceived quality in areas that include accessibility and improve reader value by eliminating errors that are introduced when workflows are not aligned or consistent.

Deliverables

In 2025 the Workflow Committee will:

• Study emerging topics affecting publishing workflows, including accessibility metadata workflows, small publisher workflows, AI integration, and outsourcing/vendor communication, and related change management.

• Evaluate the potential to create high-level, short documents on topics that include: a toolkit for automation (with or without AI), workflow mapping samples, a guide to measuring workflow success (metrics etc).

• Through its working group, study best practices for AI workflows and document how AI impacts publishing workflows.

• Oversee an audiobook best practices working group, which was formed to apply BIC’s findings and recommendations to create a Best Practices Guide for Audiobooks

• Oversee an AI working group to consider opportunities and risks associated with its use in book publishing.

Blockers

Subject-matter knowledge about topics like audiobooks and AI may not be readily available, making progress potentially difficult. The committee anticipates hiring an external resource to draft deliverables, circulate them among working group  members and knowledgeable subject matter experts, and respond to comments and direction from those audiences. As well, the AI landscape is changing quickly, and the working group may need to adjust its plans along the way to respond to new developments.

Timeline