Hi Richard, Richard Light wrote: > Are the OL subject headings available for download? I don't see them on > the standard downloads page.
We would like to make the subject "lexicon" accessible through the API, for sure. > Come to that, they don't appear to be > offered as an option when users add or update tags in a book record. > Surely you should be encouraging consistency by offering existing terms > as a suggestion? Yes, we've toyed with the idea of having some sort of "suggested tags" UI, and we may yet build this. From my point of view though, it's actually very interesting to see the wide variety of subjects being added. And, it's also illuminating to see the remarkable variety within the seemingly controlled arena of LCSH too. Tiny differences in data entry/usage means a bloom of alternative descriptions. Before we attempt to create a self-referencing data entry UI for adding subjects, I'd like to encourage free-form description for a while. I expect we'll see some imitation/mirroring of "official" subject headings anyway, even in an uncontrolled environment. Here's an example of what I mean about small variations in official subject headings (albeit split apart as Karen mentioned, in which, I realise, more direction for format might be dictated): http://openlibrary.org/search/subjects?q=rome 1. Rome 15,340 books place 2. Rome (Italy) 3,011 books place 3. Rome 557 books subject 4. Rome (City) 161 books place 5. Rome 114 books org 6. Rome (City) 85 books org 7. Rome (City) 30 books subject 8. Rome (Italy) 30 books subject 9. Rome (Italy) 26 books org 10. Rome (city) 26 books place 11. Italy Rome 15 books place 12. Rome (Italy : Province) 15 books place 13. Italy Rome 9 books subject 14. Italy Rome 8 books org etc Cheers, george _______________________________________________ Ol-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.archive.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ol-discuss To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send email to [email protected]
