Aaron Krowne

The XML log standard for digital libraries: analysis, evolution, and deployment

We describe current efforts and developments building on our proposal for an XML log standard format for digital library (DL) logging analysis and companion tools. Focus is given to the evolution of formats and tools, based on analysis of deployment in several DL systems and testbeds. Recent development of analysis tools also is discussed.

The effectiveness of automatically structured queries in digital libraries

Structured or fielded metadata is the basis for many digital library services, including searching and browsing. Yet, little is known about the impact of using structure on the effectiveness of such services. We investigate a key research question: do structured queries improve effectiveness in DL searching? To answer this question, we empirically compared the use of unstructured queries to the use of structured queries. We then tested the capability of a simple Bayesian network system, built on top of a DL retrieval engine, to infer the best structured queries from the keywords entered by the user. Experiments performed with 20 subjects working with a DL containing a large collection of computer science literature clearly indicate that structured queries, either manually constructed or automatically generated, perform better than their unstructured counterparts, in the majority of cases. Also, automatic structuring of queries appears to be an effective and viable alternative to manual structuring that may significantly reduce the burden users.

Building digital libraries from simple building blocks

Metadata harvesting has been established by the Open Archives Initiative as a viable mechanism for connecting a provider of data to a purveyor of services. The Open Digital Library model is an emerging framework which attempts to break up the services into appropriate components based also on the basic philosophy of the OAI model. This framework has been applied to various projects and evaluated for its simplicity, extensibility and reusability to support the hypothesis that digital libraries should be built from simple Web service‐like components instead of as monolithic software applications.

NNexus: Towards an Automatic Linker for a Massively-Distributed Collaborative Corpus

Collaborative online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia and PlanetMath are becoming increasingly popular. In order to understand an article in a corpus a user must understand the related and underlying concepts through linked articles. In this paper, we introduce NNexus, a generalization of the automatic linking component of PlanetMath.org and the first system that automates the process of linking encyclopedia entries into a semantic network of concepts. We discuss the challenges, present the conceptual models as well as specific mechanisms of NNexus system, and discuss some of our ongoing and completed works

An Architecture for Multischeming in Digital Libraries

In this paper we discuss the problem of handling many classification schemes within the context of a single digital library, which we term multischeming. This includes the tasks of representing which category describes an object in the digital library as well as understanding the browsing process which is performed by the user in this setting. We motivate this problem as related to digital library interoperability, and propose an architecture for representation of classification schemes in the digital library which solves it. We also discuss its implementation in the CITIDEL project.

Harvesting: Broadening the Field of Distributed Information Retrieval

This chapter argues that in addition to federated search and gathering (as by Web crawlers), harvesting is an important approach to address the needs for distributed IR. We highlight the use of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, illustrating its use in three projects: OAD, NDLTD, and CITIDEL. We explain how traditional services can be extended in a user-centered fashion, providing details of our new: ESSEX search engine, multischeming browsing, and quality-oriented filtering (using rules and SVMs). We conclude with an overview of work in progress on logging and component architectures, as well as a summary of our findings.

Combined searching of Web and OAI digital library resources

We describe an experiment in combined searching of Web pages and digital library resources, exposed via an open archives metadata provider and Web gateway service. We utilize only free/open source software components for our investigation, in order to demonstrate feasibility of deployment for all institutions.

Automatic Invocation Linking for Collaborative Web-Based Corpora

Collaborative online encyclopedias or knowledge bases such as Wikipedia and PlanetMath are becoming increasingly popular because of their open access, comprehensive and interlinked content, rapid and continual updates, and community interactivity. To understand a particular concept in these knowledge bases, a reader needs to learn about related and underlying concepts. In this chapter, we introduce the problem of invocation linking for collaborative encyclopedia or knowledge bases, review the state of the art for invocation linking including the popular linking system of Wikipedia, discuss the problems and challenges of automatic linking, and present the NNexus approach, an abstraction and generalization of the automatic linking system used by PlanetMath.org. The chapter emphasizes both research problems and practical design issues through discussion of real world scenarios and hence is suitable for both researchers in web intelligence and practitioners looking to adopt the techniques. Below is a brief outline of the chapter.

The cyberinfrastructure for scholars project: componentized architecture for sustainable scholarly portals

With the advent in recent years of widespread digital collections, web services (including “Web 2.0”), and metadata harvesting (most notably with OAI-PMH), a challenge has arisen of meshing these elements into coherent and sustaining scholarly information environments (“digital libraries,” “portals,” etc.). Many system instances have been successfully constructed demonstrating technical solutions to various problems in these areas, but these instances have not as of yet translated into wide adoption.