The phenomenon of rightsholders launching APIs for developers to experiment with is gathering pace. EMI is doing it in the music industry with its OpenEMI initiative, and Pearson in the publishing industry with its Plug & Play scheme.

The latter just got some new APIs. Pearson has added a Penguin Classics API with works by the likes of Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and the Brontë sisters, as well as a dkimages API with more than 90,000 images from DK’s archives.

“Both data sets have been frequently requested by developers and on the first birthday of Plug & Play, we’re again excited to see what fantastic new apps and services developers had in mind,” says Pearson’s head of future technologies Diana Stepner.

Developers will now be tasked with making APIs and services based on the APIs, as well as six existing ones including DK’s Eyewitness Guides, the Longman Dictionary and FT Press.