Ioannis Papadakis, Michalis Stefanidakis and Aikaterini Tzali
The purpose of this paper is to address a library service based on semantic web technologies capable of exposing knowledge that is otherwise hidden in a library's subject headings…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address a library service based on semantic web technologies capable of exposing knowledge that is otherwise hidden in a library's subject headings repository.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed service implements a web‐based information seeking process that combines browsing and searching of information assets within a library, based on their corresponding subject headings. The underlying subject headings hierarchy is the Greek translation of a subset of the official Library of Congress subject headings. The information seeking process exposes the expressiveness of an underlying ontology capable of modeling subject headings together with their relations.
Findings
In order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a real‐world scenario, the library service is integrated into a working OPAC located at the Ionian University in Greece. Thus, the library service contributes to the fast retrieval of information. Moreover, during the information seeking process, users underpin their cognitive learning.
Originality/value
The paper introduces a novel service for the library domain capable of being integrated in many library portals. Serving as a semantic web application, the proposed work promotes interactive navigation in ontology structures that could be potentially exploited by ontologies developed in other domains.
Details
Keywords
Ioannis Papadakis, Michalis Stefanidakis and Aikaterini Tzali
This paper aims at providing a robust, user‐friendly and efficient navigation procedure in an online library catalog that is based on semantic information encapsulated within…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at providing a robust, user‐friendly and efficient navigation procedure in an online library catalog that is based on semantic information encapsulated within subject headings.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes an interactive navigation procedure inside an online library catalog based on semantic information. The proposed approach is presented through a web‐based, prototype application following the most recent trends of the semantic web such as AJAX technology and the web ontology language – OWL for encoding semantics.
Findings
According to the proposed method, a GUI interface exposes the hierarchy of the subject headings employed within an OPAC, as well as all stated relations between such headings, as links that the user can follow, effectively traversing the ontology and formulating at the same time the actual query to the underlying OPAC. This act of interactive navigation through the library's assets aids searchers in accurately formulating their queries, by offering broader or narrower concepts for selection or indicating alternative or related concepts they might be initially unaware of. The augmented exposition of inter‐relations between concepts provides multiple paths for information retrieval and enables searchers to fulfill their information needs in a faster, more efficient and intuitive manner.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of modern, semantic web applications focused on the library domain. The novel approach of visualizing subject headings could be further extended to visualize a number of other conceptualizations of the library domain.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to take advantage of the “hidden knowledge” existing within the library domain but, for a number of reasons, is never exposed to the library users.