Saw a recent post on the DSpace list, asking about the use of the Dewey Decimal system to help organize a DSpace installation. The writer wondered if there were plans to support the DDC within DSpace. I double-checked my calendar, saw it wasn’t April 1st and forgot about it…
Then today I noticed that Dorothea was calling attention to a response from an OCLC employee that is so absurd I feel I have to help publicize it as a public service:
I’m from OCLC and I’ve asked the folks who are supposed to know.
There are absolutely no restrictions on using the Dewey numbers. You can assign those numbers to your works and then use them to organize your works. It would be nice if you said something on your site about Dewey being copyrighted. But otherwise, numbers are numbers and you can use them to your heart’s content.
The problem comes when you try to assign meaning to those numbers; then you’re using the work of the Dewey Editors. The text associated with those numbers IS copyright. But, if you can restrict the usage to just browsing up and down the numbers, you’re good.
Ralph LeVan
Ralph Levan is a Senior Research Scientist at OCLC and appears to have a solid background in computer science and information retrieval. Hard to say whether working at OCLC for the past twenty years is what’s given him such flair for the absurd.
Now I think I know what Kramer meant when he said…”The Dewey Decimal System. What a scam that was!” – Seinfeld, “The Library” (episode 22).