Ubiquitous Digital Libraries

Venue: Europa Congress Center
1021 Budapest, Hárshegyi u. 5-7

Floor Plan

 
TUT1

September 16, 2007
09.00-12.30
Room: Zurich

Thesauri and Ontologies in Digital Libraries 1.
Structure and Use in Knowledge-based Assistance to Users
Dagobert Soergel, College of Information Studies, Univ. of Maryland, USA

Abstract

This introductory tutorial is intended for anyone concerned with subject access to digital libraries. It provides a bridge by presenting methods of subject access as treated in an information studies program for those coming to digital libraries from other fields. It will elucidate through examples the conceptual and vocabulary problems users face when searching digital libraries. It will then show how a well-structured thesaurus / ontology can be used as the knowledge base for an interface that can assist users with search topic clarification (for example through browsing well-structured hierarchies and guided facet analysis) and with finding good search terms (through query term mapping and query term expansion — synonyms and hierarchic inclusion). It will touch on cross-database and cross-language searching as natural extensions of these functions. It will also mention the use of more richly structured ontologies, including Semantic Web applications. The tutorial will cover the thesaurus structure needed to support these functions: Concept-term relationships for vocabulary control and synonym expansion, conceptual structure (semantic analysis, facets, and hierarchy) for topic clarification and hierarchic query term expansion). It will introduce a few sample thesauri and ontologies and some thesaurus-supported digital libraries and Web sites to illustrate these principles.

Part 1. Outline

Thesaurus functions Introduction. Challenges for digital libraries (5 min) Why thesauri: a first look with examples (10 min) User orientation in a concept space and vocabulary confusion (examples) What is a thesaurus? A first look with examples (15 min) Thesaurus functions (30 min)

Thesaurus structure Concept-term relationships (10 min) Conceptual structure: Semantic analysis and facets. Hierarchy (35 min) Implementing thesaurus functions (15 min)

Evaluation of thesauri (15 min) Yahoo classification as an example Resources (5 min)

Examples of classifications and thesauri Alcohol and Other Drug Thesaurus (AOD Thesaurus) US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) US National Library of Medicine (NLM) Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT). Getty Foundation Dewey Decimal Classification. US Library of Congress & OCLC/Forest Pr WordNet. Princeton University, George Miller CYC Ontology

 
TUT2

September 16, 2007
09.00-12.30
Room: Strasbourg

Introduction to (Teaching / Learning about) Digital Libraries – part 1
Prof. Edward A. Fox, Dept. of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, USA

Abstract

This tutorial will provide a thorough and deep introduction to the DL field, introducing and building upon a firm theoretical foundation (starting with "5S": Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, Societies), giving careful definitions and explanations of all the key parts of a "minimal digital library", and expanding from that basis to cover key DL issues, illustrated with a well-chosen set of case studies, including one related to DSpace. It should be of particular interest to those new to the DL field, or to those interested in formal approaches or theoretical foundations for digital libraries.

 
TUT3

September 16, 2007
09.00-12.30
Room: Amsterdam

Approaches for Large Scale Digital Library Infrastructures by Example

Current plans for next generation DL architectures are aiming for a transition from the DL as an integrated, centrally controlled system to a large scale federation of DL services and information collections. The transition is driven by DL "market" needs and inspired by new technology trends that promise to solve at least part of these market needs.

With the uptake of DLs in a wider community there is a need for better and adaptive tailoring of the content and service offer of a DL to the needs of the respective community as well as to the current service and content offer. Furthermore, there is a need for more systematic exploitation of existing resources like information collections, metadata collections, and services for making DLs more cost-effective as well as a need for opening up of DL technology to a wider clientele by enabling more cost-effective digital libraries.

New technologies and paradigms like Peer-to-Peer networking and Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) suggest digital libraries that operate on more demand-oriented and flexible distributed or decentralized infrastructures.

The tutorial aims to introduce to the audience various central aspects of bringing digital libraries to large scale infrastructures and to suggest concrete solutions for the upcoming challenges. For this purpose, the tutorial looks at the issue from a very pragmatic point of view. The tutorial discusses the core ideas of building digital libraries on large scale distributed infrastructures and the related architectural options. Furthermore, it introduces the underlying technologies as a foundation for the understanding of the concrete solutions. The main part of the tutorial revolves around the following core DL topics:

• Content and Collection Management

• Metadata Management and Brokering

• Search and Retrieval

• Advanced Services (Personalization, Annotation, etc.)

For each of the topics the key challenges are discussed together with possible solutions for the challenges and the lessons learned in implementing these solutions in concrete projects. The solutions are illustrated with concrete examples and small system demos from the BRICKS and DELOS projects.

Speakers:
Thomas Risse (L3S Research Center)
Claudia Niederée (L3S Research Center)
Carlo Meghini (CNR-ISTI)
Heiko Schuldt (Uni Basel)

 
TUT4

September 16, 2007
14.00-17.30
Room: Zurich

Thesauri and Ontologies in Digital Libraries 2.
Design, Evaluation, and Development

Abstract

This tutorial is intended for people who have a basic familiarity with the function and structure of thesauri and ontologies. It will introduce criteria for the design and evaluation of thesauri and ontologies and then deal with methods and tools for their development: Locating sources; collecting concepts, terms. and relationships to reuse existing knowledge; developing and refining thesaurus/ontology structure; software and database structure for the development and maintenance of thesauri and ontologies; standards such as RDF and TopicMaps; collaborative development of thesauri and ontologies; developing crosswalks / mappings between thesauri/ontologies. In summing up, the tutorial will address the question of the amount of resources needed to develop and maintain a thesaurus or ontology.

Part 2. Outline

Introduction and overview (5 min) The process of thesaurus construction The overall process of thesaurus construction (5 min) Sources of concepts, terms, relationships, definitions (15 min) Methods of data collection Merging data from many sources (10 min)

Developing the conceptual structure Facet analysis 13: Education (starting with classes from DDC (25 min) More facet examples: Yahoo Education, job titles (10 min)

Developing the conceptual structure, continued Hands-on facet exercise (in pairs) (40 min) Principles for meaningful arrangement (15 min) Rules for selection of concepts as descriptors. Rules for selection of terms (10 min)

The structure and processing of thesaurus data Interoperability of thesauri/ontologies. Crosswalks (20 min) The structure of a thesaurus/ontology database. Web standards for KOS data (20 min) The many forms of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) and their content standards (20 min) Thesaurus software and its evaluation (20 min)

 
TUT5

September 16, 2007
14.00-17.30
Room: Strasbourg

Introduction to (Teaching / Learning about) Digital Libraries – part 2
Prof. Edward A. Fox, Dept. of Computer Science, Virginia Tech, USA

Abstract

This tutorial will provide more of a thorough and deep introduction to the DL field, extending what has been discussed in part 1. However, it will be self-contained, so those with prior work in the field can just take part 2. Among other topics, there will be discussion of a formal view of DL interoperability (including harvesting into union digital libraries, illustrated with ETANA-DL, an archaeological digital library), and of how searching, browsing, and visualization are all aspects of "exploration". In addition, guidance will be given on how to teach and learn about DLs, building from a formal framework. Preliminary results from an NSF grant to develop DL curriculum will be presented, including descriptions of the major modules and sub-modules that cover the core DL topics and related topics. This will complement the related ECDL education workshop, and be of benefit to those attending both.

 
TUT6

September 16, 2007
14.00-17.30
Room: Amsterdam

Building Digital Libraries On-demand by Sharing Content, Services and Computing Resources

Abstract

Digital Libraries are now envisioned as flexible systems set up by virtual organizations for supporting collaboration among its members. The sustainability of this new paradigm strongly relies on the two major capabilities: (i) controlled sharing of content, services and computing resources across organizations and (ii) on-demand creation of digital libraries throught the dynamic aggregation of the necessary shared resources. This tutorial will provide an overview of the solutions that can be used to implement this vision, focusing in particular on the exploitation of grid technologies and infrastructures. The solutions presented will be exemplified by presenting how they have been concretely put in practice in deploying DILIGENT (http://www.diligentproject.org), an infrastructure for supporting the creation of on-demand, transient digital libraries.

The DILIGENT functionality will be exemplified by showing two digital libraries that have been created using this infrastructure: one for supporting the preparation of courses and other teaching activities in the Culture-Heritage sector and the other one supporting the process of reports preparation in the Earth Observation sector. Demonstrators will also be available to illustrate the realization of specific functionalities like image features extractions, video watermarking, and more low level functionality implemented to support the on-demand creation and management of digital libraries, like dynamic deployment and configuration of web services on remote hosting nodes belonging to the infrastructure.

Speakers:
Donatella Castelli (ISTI-CNR)
George Kakaletris (Dept. of Informatics and Telecommunications, Univ. of Athens)
Yannis Ioannidis (Dept. of Informatics and Telecom, Univ. of Athens)
Pasquale Pagano (ISTI-CNR)
Prof. Dr. Heiko Schuldt (Univ. of Basel)
Fabio Simeoni (Univ. of Strathclyde)

Call for tutorials - Passed