diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/sparql/GetAllPrefix.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/sparql/GetAllPrefix.java
index fd78f5034..c2c8047f1 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/sparql/GetAllPrefix.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/sparql/GetAllPrefix.java
@@ -13,6 +13,12 @@ import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+import org.mindswap.pellet.jena.vocabulary.SWRL;
+import org.openrdf.model.vocabulary.OWL;
+import org.openrdf.model.vocabulary.RDF;
+
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.vocabulary.RDFS;
+import com.hp.hpl.jena.vocabulary.XSD;
 
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vedit.controller.BaseEditController;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.auth.requestedAction.Actions;
@@ -20,6 +26,7 @@ import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.auth.requestedAction.usepages.UseMiscell
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.beans.Ontology;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.controller.VitroRequest;
 import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.OntologyDao;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.VitroVocabulary;
 
 /**
  * This servlet gets all the prefix for initizing the sparql query builder.
@@ -69,18 +76,37 @@ public class GetAllPrefix extends BaseEditController {
 			while (ontItr.hasNext()) {
 				Ontology ont = (Ontology) ontItr.next();
 				if (ont.getPrefix() != null) {
-					respo += "<option>" + "<key>" + ont.getPrefix() + "</key>"
-							+ "<value>" + ont.getURI() + "</value>"
-							+ "</option>";
+					respo += makeOption(ont.getPrefix(), ont.getURI());
 				}
 			}
 
 		}
+		;
+		respo += makeOption("owl", OWL.NAMESPACE);
+		respo += makeOption("rdf", RDF.NAMESPACE);
+		respo += makeOption("rdfs", RDFS.getURI());
+		respo += makeOption("swrl", "http://www.w3.org/2003/11/swrl#");
+		respo += makeOption("swrlb", "http://www.w3.org/2003/11/swrlb#");
+		respo += makeOption("xsd", XSD.getURI());
+		respo += makeOption("vitro", VitroVocabulary.vitroURI);
 		respo += "</options>";
 		out.println(respo);
 		out.flush();
 		out.close();
 	}
+	
+	/**
+	 * Makes the markup for a prefix option
+	 * @param prefix
+	 * @param URI
+	 * @return option string
+	 */
+	private String makeOption(String prefix, String URI) {
+	    return "<option>" + "<key>" + prefix + "</key>"
+                + "<value>" + URI + "</value>"
+                + "</option>";
+	}
+	
 
 	/**
 	 * The doPost method of the servlet. <br>
diff --git a/webapp/web/admin/sparql.jsp b/webapp/web/admin/sparql.jsp
index 7b5579cc6..ef084a792 100644
--- a/webapp/web/admin/sparql.jsp
+++ b/webapp/web/admin/sparql.jsp
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 <!-- $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ -->
+<%@page import="com.hp.hpl.jena.vocabulary.OWL"%>
 <%@page import="com.hp.hpl.jena.rdf.model.ModelMaker"%>
 <%@page import="java.util.Iterator"%>
 <%@page import="java.util.ArrayList"%>
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ td {
 			<tr id="clazz(0)">
 				<td id="subject(0)" width="33%">
 					<select id="subject(0,0)">
-						<option value="">
+						<option value="<%=OWL.Thing.getURI()%>">
 							Thing
 						</option>
 					</select>
diff --git a/webapp/web/js/sparql/sparql.js b/webapp/web/js/sparql/sparql.js
index 995fb5bdd..d554081af 100644
--- a/webapp/web/js/sparql/sparql.js
+++ b/webapp/web/js/sparql/sparql.js
@@ -49,8 +49,8 @@
 				var myPrefixAjax = new Ajax.Request( preurl, {method: "get", parameters: "", onComplete: function(originalRequest){
 							var response = originalRequest.responseXML;
 							var options = response.getElementsByTagName("option");
-							if (options == null || options.length == 0){
-								alert("Error: Cannot get all the prefix.");
+							if (options == null || options.length == 0) {
+								alert("Error: Cannot get all the prefixes.");
 								return;
 							}
 							for(i=0; i<options.length; i++)