[Data-modeling] Library of Congress and Dewey Classifications

[Ed Laurent]

Understood. Maybe I was getting a little carried away. However, querying a
library for a particular book could require knowledge of it's complete Dewey
code and version depending on how it is referenced by the library.

I guess my potentially useful point was that anyone's concept of <subject
topic> may differ from someone else's. Defining and cross referencing
similar subject ontologies (e.g., Dewey versions, land cover classification
systems, species concepts) is therefore very important so that people can
find <other books on subject> even if the book topics are linked to a
subject only through a similar but different ontology. This will likely
require that categories or subject topics (e.g., topics of "Book subject"
type) are listed as topics of a defined ontology type (see topics
listed in Classification
system<http://www.freebase.com/view/user/spatialed/default_domain/classification_system>)
and that the subject topics are cross referenced to similar subject topics
of different ontologies (see Equals, Overlaps, Contains, and Contained by
properties of Classification
code<http://www.freebase.com/view/schema/user/spatialed/default_domain/classification_code>).
This is one way that "higher-order semantics" that Robert referred to in the
Events thread can be defined.

-Ed


On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 1:59 PM, Jeff Prucher <jeff at metaweb.com> wrote:

>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com
> > [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Ed Laurent
>
> > I'm wondering how useful the browsing option of "All books in
> > Dewey Decimal 303" would be on a day-to-day basis compared to
> > "I'm looking for The Catcher in the Rye at my local library
> > and want to know where to find it". Is finding a book in your
> > local library an appropriate use of Freebase? It's not much
> > different than asking "I'm looking for car manufacturers in
> > my city and want to know where to find them".  That seems to
> > be appropriate.
>
> I'd say that "I'm looking for library branches in my city" is more
> analogous
> to "I'm looking for car manufacturers in my city". Finding a book in your
> local library is more akin to querying the current stock of an auto-parts
> store. Since Freebase can never hope to be as good as your local library's
> actual website in terms of being able to find out what books they have, I
> don't think it's an appropriate use. What would be appropriate, though, is
> to have a way either to query which libraries have a particular item, or
> to
> query a specific library for an item. We don't currently have this
> capability, but it would be very, very cool.
>
>
> > Freebase could be very useful for not just linking topics but
> > also for linking the ways they are categorized. As users
> > become more aware of the various ways that topics are
> > categorized and the reasons behind differences in systems
> > that define the categories (especially systems that are well
> > used and well defined) they should be able to develop more
> > and more comprehensive and mutually exclusive type properties
> > and topic attributes.
>
> This is a very good point, and well worth keeping in mind as we deal not
> only with book data, but many other types of data as well.
>
> Jeff
>
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