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 OCLC Updates and Special Offers: Dewey Products New from OCLC: Dewey Linked Data Web service |
The Dewey team at OCLC has been pursuing ways to apply Linked Data principles to parts of the Dewey Decimal Classification system and present the data as a small ‘terminology service.’ The goals of this effort include:
- Having the service respond to regular HTTP requests with either a machine- or human-readable presentation of Dewey classes
- A URI for every Dewey concept, not just single classes
- Presenting data in RDF using a vocabulary capable of handing rich semantic information that is simple enough for user agents to explore the data on their own
- Accommodating more complex use cases by offering API-like access, at first primarily for queries
- Reusable data that allows anyone to use it for noncommercial purposes.
Some results of these efforts are now available as dewey.info. We chose the DDC Summaries as a first data set to publish according to Linked Data principles. You can learn more on the new Dewey Web Services page.
What you see now is only the first step. We intend for dewey.info to be a platform for Dewey data on the Web, a place to start a dialogue and exchange of ideas with the Linked Data community. While the DDC Summaries is a fairly straightforward data set to be published in this manner, we encourage you to watch for more languages, deeper data and links to other data sets in the future. We invite and appreciate your comments or suggestions.