Open Linked Library
So Jonathan Rothkind picked up the same link that I saw: a fantastically cool, potentially very useful, set of RDF triples that describes a certain widely used library classification scheme which here I will not name because its copyright-holder (the OCLC) has a rather tainted history of aggressively guarding their turf.
What’s cool about this effort is not just the data (and as Ross notes in a comment, it really is very cool), but how it was constructed. As I note in a comment:
If you look at the code, it constructs the RDF from publicly available data: wikipedia.
Jonathan and Ross also note the irony here that all of this interesting and useful work is being done by people from outside the world of formal library committees and such. Ross:
Ed is singlehandedly dragging libraries into the linked data cloud. And it’s all pretty much under the radar and totally outside of any library knowledge. It will be interesting to see how the library world deals with the fact that, despite their person-decades of committees to deal with modernizing library data, the entire outside world will already have been working with it for almost a year.
The real question is, what next? As I also note:
While I don’t doubt the OCLC may well try to get it taken down given their past behavior (come on people; get with the 21st century), would they really have a legal to stand on?
If they do, then they probably ought to go after Wikipedia too. I dare them to do that.
So my public challenge to the OCLC:
Don’t be small-minded here. Recognize efforts like these for what they are: useful and productive enhancements to library data that can be of broad benefit to OCLC members.
If, on the other hand, you cannot yet wrap your arms around the inevitability of this open web of knowledge, then I dare you: send a cease and desist to Wikipedia.
As for me, I’m really interested in starting to link together all this stuff: this new Decimalised Database of Concepts, Ed Summer’s similar effort with the Library of Congress subject headings (which I understand will be coming back soon at loc.gov), the Open Library’s serving up of RDF for all their data, and maybe convincing Zotero to tie in their data as well.
You can see my own small effort at my new site I’ve been slowing working on. Why, after all, should I, as an academic author, leave it up to libraries and publishers alone to hold data about me and my work?
