Government Agency Names and Statutes as Linked Data, via LC Name Authority File

The Library of Congress has made available the LC Name Authority File as Linked Data.

The data are available in several formats, including RDF/XML, N-Triples, and JSON.

Of particular interest to the legal informatics community is the fact that the Linked Data version of the LC Name Authority File includes records for names of very large numbers of government entities — as well as of other kinds of organizations, such as corporations, and individuals — of the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, India, and many other nations. The file also includes many records for individual statutes.

These Linked Data records could contribute significantly to the development of the legal Semantic Web.

Here are examples of law-related records in the Linked Data version of the LC Name Authority File:

• click here for records concerning U.S. public laws;
• click here for records concerning the U.S. Congress;
• click here for records concerning the U.S. Department of Justice;
• click here for records concerning the UK Parliament;
• click here for records concerning the Parliament of India; and
• click here for records concerning ministries of the French national government.

The Linked Data version of the LC Name Authority File complements the Linked Data version of the LC Subject Authority File released in 2009.

Click here for other law-related Linked Data resources.

HT @naypinya and Kevin Ford.