[WEB4LIB] Use of DDC in web displays

[Thomas Dowling]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Kuntz " <jkuntz at ansernet.rcls.org>

> Yesterday I received a very pleasantly written license notice from OCLC
Forest Press; the stern part, however, noted:
>
> "Regarding KidsClick's current use of Dewey, our standard licensing policy
requires libraries who wish to use the DDC Summaries (the first three levels
of the DDC, e.g., 500 Science, 510 Mathematics, 513 Arithmetic) on their Web
site to be current subscribers to an electronic version of the DDC...

Out of curiosity, how much difference is there at the upper levels between
the DDC of today and earlier editions, which have passed into public domain?
This sort of attitude seems designed to send would-be web catalogers
flocking to some such freely accessible starting point to create an
open-source subject classification.

Thomas Dowling
Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu