Devika P. Madalli

Faceted infrastructure for semantic digital libraries

Purpose – The paper aims to argue that digital library retrieval should be based on semantic representations and propose a semantic infrastructure for digital libraries.Design/methodology/approach – The approach taken is formal model based on subject representation for digital libraries.Findings – Search engines and search techniques have fallen short of user expectations as they do not give context based retrieval. Deploying semantic web technologies would lead to efficient and more precise representation of digital library content and hence better retrieval. Though digital libraries often have metadata of information resources which can be accessed through OAI‐PMH, much remains to be accomplished in making digital libraries semantic web compliant. This paper presents a semantic infrastructure for digital libraries, that will go a long way in providing them and web based information services with products highly customised to users needs.Research limitations/implications – Here only a model for semantic ...

YAMO: Yet Another Methodology for large-scale faceted Ontology construction

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a brand new ontology development methodology, called Yet Another Methodology for Ontology (YAMO) and demonstrate, step by step, the building of a formally defined large-scale faceted ontology for food. Design/methodology/approach – YAMO is motivated by facet analysis and an analytico-synthetic classification approach. The approach ensures quality of the system precisely; it makes the system flexible, hospitable, extensible, sturdy, dense and complete. YAMO consists of two-way approaches: top-down and bottom-up. Based on YAMO, domain food, formally defined as large-scale ontology, is designed. To design the ontology and to define the scope and boundary of the domain, a group of people were interviewed to get a practical overview, which provided more insight to the theoretical understanding of the domain. Findings – The result obtained from evaluating the ontology is a very impressive one. Based on the study, it was found that 94 per cent of the user’s queries were succe...

Trends in knowledge modelling and knowledge management: an editorial

PurposeThe purpose of this editorial is to provide an overview of the theme of this special issue and also to introduce discussions of the subject. Design/Methodology/ApproachThis editorial briefly describes the theme of this special issue on knowledge modelling and knowledge management. The background research and activities that lead to this special issue are highlighted. The papers are introduced by describing their contribution to the state-of-the-art research. FindingsThis editorial discusses why this special issue is significant and timely. It explores the state-of-the-art research work in the area of knowledge modelling and knowledge management which have been discussed in detail throughout this issue. Originality/valueThis editorial helps the readers to form an initial idea on knowledge modelling and knowledge management. It may help readers to have an initial understanding of the research that has been presented in this issue.

Metadata for resource discovery in learning repositories road to enhanced access to e-learning content

As the importance of metadata in resource discovery cannot be over-emphasized, the paper tries to analyze the potential of learning metadata in learning management systems. It examines a learning initiative in the Indian Context while highlighting desirable features especially to aide resource discovery. The present work proposes an approach of integrating LOM based learning management system with learning ontologies.

AERIS: an integrated domain information system for aerospace science and technology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methodology in building an integrated domain information system with illustrations that provide proof of conceptDesign/methodology/approach – The present work studies the usual search engine approach to information and its pitfalls. A methodology was adopted for construction of a domain‐based information system, known as Aerospace Information System (AERIS), comprising six distinct steps in identifying and sourcing, evaluating and then technically integrating resources into the information system. AERIS is an integrated gateway for resources in the domain of aerospace science and technology. AERIS is designed to provide information from varied sources such as formal publications (e.g. articles), aggregators (e.g. harvesters) and also informal resources such as blogs and discussion fora. Interaction is provided through a simple user interface.Findings – The domain‐based information system with focussed collection and services serves patrons with more pr...

Issues in Indian languages computing in particular reference to search and retrieval in Telugu language

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various issues involved in Indian languages computing, particularly Telugu, like creating, displaying, searching and retrieving digital content. The paper also aims to emphasize the issues involved in retrieval in Indian languages. The complexities presented by the grammar, syntax and morphology of Indian languages are discussed.Design/methodology/approach – The paper undertakes and presents descriptive study of the issues and challenges in Indian languages computing in general and Telugu language in particular.Findings – The problem of multilingual information retrieval in Indian languages is multi‐pronged. A major observation of this study is that, though digital content is available in Indian languages, it is mostly in non‐standard encoding format and fonts. There is an urgent need to work in the area of developing search algorithms for Indian languages, like soundex and metaphones to tolerate spelling variations and mistakes that a user might make ...

UML for the conceptual web

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of unified modelling language (UML) based ontologies to develop a faceted model to facilitate semantic browsing and searching in digital libraries.Design/methodology/approach – The approach is to understand the way information gets logically organised in the human mind in terms of mutually defined concepts. Ontologies will be used to model the semantic structure of individual information sources using the faceted classification schema of Dr S.R. Ranganathan, though with improvisation to accommodate new concepts relating to digital resources.Findings – UML can be the best option for knowledge representation if the target system is a digital library where the required type of reasoning about ontologies is more in terms of answering specific and specialised questions. Here, ontologies can be used to facilitate a distributed information retrieval system.Originality/value – The proposed model will not only facilitate semantic searching using UML concept...

Formalizing Food Ingredients for Data Analysis and Knowledge Organization

The term food has several connotations, from different substances of nourishment to a stimuli for thought. The concept of substances of nourishment or ingredients, applies in the preparation of ‘food’. Food is one of the most important domain that is essential for existence of life. Recently it has gained enough popularity as studies are being made on food, its influence on culture, its impact on society and its dominance in human life-style. It is indeed true that the domain food is very diverse. There exists cultural diversity as no homogeneity can be found between northern and southern or eastern and western part the world. So in this paper an attempt is made to rank ingredients which are used in the preparations of varieties of dishes with different recipes. Each territory offers its own culinary unique components and numerous traditional dishes which involves both homogeneous and heterogeneous group of entities. Ranking of homogeneous group of entities is not as challenging as it is to rank a heterogeneous group as each dish comprises distinct ingredients. So ranking of ingredients and analysing them is indeed a challenge. A study is made by analysing 1,65,550 recipe sets from different recipe sites. Each of the recipes constitutes numerous ingredients. The aim of this study is to categorize the ingredients and inspect the most popular ingredient in the culinary world used widely across different countries. To achieve this goal, formal concept analysis is employed in the data analysis technique to analyse and categorise food ingredients.

Scientometrics profile of global genetics literature as seen through PubMed

In this paper an attempt has been made to study the Growth pattern, doubling time of world and Indian Genetics literature. The Knowledge of Genetics being basic to progress in biology, agriculture, medicine, biotechnology, forensic sciences and many other fields, results of such studies are found highly useful. There are several dimensions of national science indicators that can be used to study different aspects of the research output in the field of Genetics and its ten subfields. Branch wise contribution indicates maximum growth in the branch of Human Genetics with the major contribution of 3,87,605 publications during this block period,(1993-2002) followed by Molecular Genetics (3,87,323); Medical Genetics (1,51,497); Population Genetics (65,910); Genetic Engineering (68,163); Genomics (54907); Developmental Genetics (50,445); Quantitative Genetics (48,060); Microbial Genetics (25,774) ; and Evolutionary Genetics (23,732). During both the block periods (1993-2002 and 2003-2012) Evolutionary Genetics has lesser number of publications. Study finally inferred that the Logarithmic and Linear growth models fit well for Worlds genetics literature whereas for India Exponential and Logistic models fit well.

Modes of Growth of Subjects

Defines knowledge as a system in a perpetually dynamic continuum. Knowledge grows as it is always fragmentary, though quantifying this growth is nearly impossible. Growth, inherent in the nature of knowledge, is natural, planned, and induced. S.R. Ranganathan elucidated the various modes of growth of subjects, viz. Fission, lamination, loose assemblage, fusion, distillation, partial comprehensions, and subject bundles. The present study adds a few more modes of developments of subjects. We describe and fit these modes of growth in the framework of growth by specialization, inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary growths. We also examines emergence of online domains such as web directories and focusses on possible modes of formation of such domains. The paper concludes that new modes may emerge in the future in consonance with the new research trends and ever changing social needs. 1 Growth of Knowledge Every system and entity in this universe is growing and changing. Universe of knowledge is a system; and like every system it grows. Growth of knowledge is both additive, as in humanities and cumulative, as in sciences (Dogan, 2001a,11025). S.R. Ranganathans fifth law of library science, viz. Library is a growing organism, is a simple bibliothecal manifestation of this impeccable law of growth of knowledge. Kevin McGarry aptly equates this growth to biological growth. Today this growth rate is unprecedented and alarming. We are obviously witnessing an information deluge – though it is not easy to quantify the volume of knowledge or its speed of growth (McGarry 1993, Machlup 1979). However, as measured through the quantity of literature, scientific literature grows annually at the rate of 5 to 15% and thus doubles between 5 to 15 years, writes a Director of Chemical Abstract Service (Satija 1984). In some areas of soft sciences, such as humanities, knowledge growth is slow, so is the rate of obsolescence. We however see a palpable growth of knowledge in all areas of human thought and endeavours. The growth may be of three types: 1.1 Natural Growth Paul Weiss (1960) and S.R. Ranganathan (1963, 449) liken knowledge growth to the growth and development of living organism so does Kevin McGarry (1993, 146). Thus knowledge grows without any conscious efforts, as in a forest, provided the environment is not inimical. In every age and society there are curious and restless souls engaged of their own in knowledge creation. This continuous growth makes knowledge a system in a dynamic continuum. Every system needs information feed for its stability and development. This is true even of homeostasis stage. It means knowledge needs further knowledge for preservation and dissemination of the existing stock of knowledge – thus adding to the existing stock. Hence, it grows of its own. Another factor for growth of knowledge is the innate curiosity, urge to be held in high esteem, and spirit of adventure and exploration in human beings. Next to food, shelter and security what man wants is to know the unknown. This quest is known to drive humans to life risking adventures to explore the deep secrets