Semantic navigating an OPAC by subject headings meta‐information

Pages779-791
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/02640470910998515
Date02 October 2009
Published date02 October 2009
AuthorIoannis Papadakis,Michalis Stefanidakis,Aikaterini Tzali
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management,Library & information science
Semantic navigating an OPAC
by subject headings
meta-information
Ioannis Papadakis
Department of Archives and Library Sciences, Ionian University,
Corfu, Greece, and
Michalis Stefanidakis and Aikaterini Tzali
Department of Computer Science, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
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.
Keywords Semantics,Worldwide web, Online catalogues,Greece, Informationretrieval, User interfaces
Paper type Technical paper
1. Introduction
Nowadays, libraries are considered as places with access to information in many
formats and from many sources. Apart from providing physical and/or digital
information assets, libraries also provide services related to meta-information of such
assets. Such services are managed by librarians, who are experts at finding and
organizing information and at interpreting information needs. In the context of
information organization, cataloging and metadata creation are tasks tha t are
consistently assigned to librarians all over the world. This has resulted in the creation
of very significant, semantically-rich information repositories about the information
assets that are located within each library.
The domination of the web as the de facto environment for information interchange,
urged the library community to adapt to this environment. Thus, an ever-increasing
number of library services are currently delivered through the web. Such services are
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Semantic
navigating an
OPAC
779
Received 1 March 2008
Revised 15 September 2008
Accepted 24 October 2008
The Electronic Library
Vol. 27 No. 5, 2009
pp. 779-791
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470910998515

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