OCLC Releases Top Levels of Dewey as Linked Data

Dewey is getting new life as linked data. OCLC has released the top three levels (including 1100 classes) of the Dewey Decimal Summaries (DDS) as part of an interlinked scheme of uniform resource identifiers (URI). This release is the latest effort by library organizations to connect broad classification systems such as Dewey and the Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings to other linked data sets.

As Michael Panzer, assistant editor of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), put it, "publishing parts of Dewey as linked data means that any application or resource description can now establish live links into the DDC, instead of just using the Dewey number." Dewey numbers already exist in thousands of library catalogs and programs; linking them all together as well as to any number of other existing linked data schemes opens up a lot of possibilities. Given that the DDS data is mirrored across nine languages, Panzer said that a broad, multilingual collection like the World Digital Library, which already uses Dewey for subject access, may be an early adopter of the service.

Although the Dewey classification is owned by OCLC and licensed for use in libraries, the top three levels of the system have been released under a Creative Commons license in order to make the linked data Summaries compatible with other freely licensed data sets and to encourage others to work with the service. Panzer also promised more services to come from OCLC, including some that will show off "the versatility of Dewey as a general subject description and access tool."