Announcement: 4 LC Classification Classes added to LC Linked Data Service
The Library of Congress is pleased to make available the B, M, N, and Z Classes of the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) from the Library's Linked Data Service (ID.LOC.GOV). This effort not only provides URIs and resources for LCC schedules and tables required to synthesize a classification number, but also Linked Data resources for each derivable classification number and classification range within the entire Class hierarchy. A small ontology has been developed to accurately represent the semantics for LCC data; it will follow shortly. The publication of these LCC classes as Linked Data is presently a beta offering. As such, this announcement is limited to those groups and users who will most benefit from this offering, and from whom we anticipate we will likely receive the most valuable feedback at this time. Because LCC is sufficiently different from the other data available at ID.LOC.GOV, notably LCSH and Names, it is anticipated that more time and user feedback will be needed to fully work out any remaining issues and to maximize the data's usability. Indeed, we encourage the submission of uses cases about how users would like to use the data. Because this is an area of active development, no bulk download of these classes are being published at this time. On the other hand, it is hoped that more LCC Classes will be added more quickly in the near future. ** Please explore it for yourself at http://id.loc.gov/authorities/classification ** Contact Us about ID: As always, your feedback is important and welcomed. Though we are interested in all forms of constructive commentary on all topics related to ID, we're particularly interested in how the data available from ID.LOC.GOV is used. Your contributions directly inform service enhancements. You can send comments or report any problems to us via the ID feedback form or ID listserv (see the web site). Background: The LC Linked Data Service was first made available in May 2009 and offered the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Library's initial entry into the Linked Data environment. In part by assigning each vocabulary and each data value within it a unique resource identifier (URI), the service provides a means for machines to semantically access, use, and harvest authority and vocabulary data that adheres to W3C recommendations, such as Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), and the more detailed vocabulary MADS/RDF. In this way, the LC Linked Data Service also makes government data publicly and freely available in the spirit of the Open Government directive. Although the primary goal of the service is to enable machine access to Library of Congress data, a web interface serves human users searching and browsing the vocabularies. The new datasets join the term and code lists already available through the service: * Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) * Library of Congress Children's Subject Headings * Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms * Library of Congress / NACO Name Authority File * Thesaurus of Graphic Materials * MARC Code List for Relators * MARC Code List for Countries (which reference their equivalent ISO 3166 codes) * MARC Code List for Geographic Areas * MARC Code List for Languages (which have been cross referenced with ISO 639-1, 639-2, and 639-5, where appropriate) * PREMIS vocabularies for Cryptographic Hash Functions, Preservation Events, and Preservation Level Roles The above code lists also contain links with appropriate LCSH and LC/NAF headings. -- Kevin Ford Network Development & MARC Standards Office Library of Congress Washington, DC
