Book subjects and bibliodiversity

Ronald Snijder

Tue 14 Jan 2025

Read this article at hypothèses.org

We are all aware of bibliodiversity: the idea that different communities have specific needs which should also be reflected in their publications. In other words, while a standardisation based on a concentration of publishers seems efficient, we should also enable a more diverse publishing landscape. Bibliodiversity is mostly studied based on publication languages, or the imbalance of the means of knowledge production and dissemination.

In this recently published article, I explored a different aspect: instead of focusing on the language, I wanted to see if different communities are interested in different subjects. This was triggered by the introduction of the Thema classification in 2024 to the OAPEN Library and the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). In contrast to older schemas, Thema aims to be global in scope, and also to be useful throughout the whole of the book supply chain, from publisher to acquiring library or retailer. Using a classification such as Thema makes it possible to describe the subjects of the titles in the OAPEN Library in a way that is language independent.

The Thema classification scheme aims to be more international. Does this new classification align with the international community of readers of the OAPEN Library? To answer this question, I used a social network analysis. Each book in the OAPEN Library has been assigned one or more classifications. We can combine this with the country from which the book have been downloaded. Thus, it is possible to find the ten most downloaded books from each country, and to create a data set of the ten most downloaded books of one hundred countries.

The data set consists of a network with two types of entities: classifications and countries. The analysis tries to find communities of actors – the readers of the books who are represented by the country names – and passive elements: the subjects of the books. A clustering algorithm divides the entities into closely connected groups.

A social network graph of 21 groups consisting of flags and dots representing subjects

The next question to answer is whether these groups of countries and subjects are completely random, or if there are regions in the world that are interested in the same subjects. It turns out there are. I have found several groups of neighbouring countries that share an interest in certain countries. For instance, several countries in the east and south of Africa are downloading books that deal with Education or Economics, Finance, Business and Management.

Social network graph of flags and subject codes, plus a map of the African continent, where several countries are shaded in blue

In Oceania, I found an interest in Society and culture; Politics and government in combination with classifications based on a region: “1M: Australasia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Atlantic Islands”.

Social network graph of flags and subject codes, plus a map of the Oceania, where several countries are shaded in blue

In this article, I tried not to exactly pinpoint whether a specific subject is more ‘popular’ in East Asia compared with West Africa. Instead, this was an first investigation into a rather unexplored aspect of bibliodiversity: regional differences in knowledge consumption. Hopefully, more research will follow.

The article is published in open access and can be read here: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.679.

Snijder R, “Thema and world needs: exploring bibliodiversity through open access book subjects,” Insights, 2025, 38: 1–13; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.679