Search results

We have proposed and implemented AgentMatcher, an architecture for match‐making in e‐Business applications. It uses arc‐labeled and arc‐weighted trees to match buyers and sellers via our novel similarity algorithm. This paper adapts the architecture for match‐making between learners and learning objects (LOs). It uses the Canadian Learning Object Metadata (CanLOM) repository of the eduSource e‐Learning project. Through AgentMatcher’s new indexing component, known as Learning Object Metadata Generator (LOMGen), metadata is extracted from HTML LOs for use in CanLOM. LOMGen semi‐automatically generates the LO metadata by combining a word frequency count and dictionary lookup. A subset of these metadata terms can be selected from a query interface, which permits adjustment of weights that express user preferences. Web‐based pre‐filtering is then performed over the CanLOM metadata kept in a relational database. Using an XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) translator, the pre‐filtered result is transformed into an XML representation, called Weighted Object‐Oriented (WOO) RuleML (Rule Markup Language). This is compared to the WOO RuleML representation obtained from the query interface by AgentMatcher’s core Similarity Engine. The final result is presented as a ranked LO list with a user‐specified threshold.

This article details the DC‐dot metadata editor, a tool developed by the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) to promote use of the Dublin Core (DC) Element Set. DC‐dot is one of the oldest and most widely‐used Dublin Core metadata generators. Andy Powell, Distributed Systems and Services Team Leader at UKOLN and creator of DC‐dot, discusses the state RDF, the impact that XML will have on Dublin Core, the challenges facing the DC Metadata Initiative, his role as a member of the DC Advisory Committee, and advice for metadata implementers.

Exploration and use of Dublin Core metadata tools in a graduate library course, Organization of Information, suggests applications of these tools in similar courses as an introduction to cataloging. Students used the Nordic DC metadata creator to catalog and classify both Internet and traditional information objects. Because links available from the Nordic DC metadata creator and Dublin Core home pages make cataloging resource materials easily available, students had less difficulty integrating their knowledge and those resources to create cataloging records than their counterparts in prior courses did. Practice with the Dublin Core tools, observation of their use by student catalogers, and the potential for gaining experience with more sophisticated tools available in the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) project encouraged Bowling Green State University to participate in CORC.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a tutorial and survey on recent advances in multimedia networking from an integrated perspective of both video networking and building digital video libraries. The nature of video networking, coupled with various recent developments in standards, proposals and applications, poses great challenges to the research and industrial communities working in this area.

This paper presents an insightful analysis for recent and emerging multimedia applications in digital video libraries and on video coding standards and their applications in digital libraries. Emphasis is given on those standards and mechanisms that enable multimedia content adaptation fully interoperable according to the vision of Universal Multimedia Access vision.

The tutorial helps elucidate the similarities and differences among the considered standards and networking applications. A number of research trends and challenges are identified, and selected promising solutions are discussed. This practice would needle further thoughts on the development of this area and open-up more research and application opportunities.

The paper does not provide methodical studies of networking application scenarios for all the discussed video coding standards and Quality of Service (QoS) management mechanisms.

The paper provides an overview of which technologies/mechanisms are being used broadly in networking scenarios of digital video libraries. The discussed networking scenarios bring together video coding standards and various emerging wireless networking paradigms toward innovative application scenarios.

QoS mechanisms and video coding standards that support multimedia applications for digital video libraries need to become well-known by library managers and professional associations in the fields of libraries and archives. The comprehensive overview and critiques on existing standards and application approaches offer a valuable reference for researchers and system developers in related research and industrial communities.

A new Danish legal deposit act has facilitated co‐operation in creation of a common application form for Danish Dublin Core including the basic fifteen elements and four subelements. The form is used for creation of metadata in government publications and as an application form for legal deposit and inclusion in the national bibliography.

This paper introduces an approach to minimize the total designer effort for building XML data integration systems. Since fully automatic schema mapping generation is infeasible, in our view such an approach can be used as a semi‐automatic tool for XML schemas mediation. A method is proposed to query XML documents through a mediation layer. Such a layer is introduced to describe the mappings between global XML schema and local heterogeneous XML schemas. It produces a uniform interface over the local XML data sources, and provides the required functionality to query these sources in a uniform way. It involves two important units: the XML Metadata Document (XMD) and the Query Translator. The XMD is an XML document containing metadata, in which the mappings between global and local schemas are defined. The XML Query Translator which is an integral part of the system is introduced to translate a global user query into local queries by using the mappings that are defined in the XMD.

An e‐mail survey was conducted by the Dublin Core Libraries Working Group to collect examples of Dublin Core use in libraries, and to provide input for the development of a Dublin Core application profile for libraries. A total of 29 responses were received from nine countries, describing 33 separate implementations of Dublin Core. The most commonly cited reasons for selecting Dublin Core were its international acceptance, flexibility and likelihood of future interoperability. Each of the 15 core elements was in use by between 59 percent and 97 percent of the projects in the survey. There was a high incidence (73 percent) of projects that use metadata elements in addition to the DC elements and approved qualifiers. The two most widely reported challenges involved in implementing Dublin Core were that there are too few elements and qualifiers, and the lack of usage guidelines.

This paper aims to propose a toolset that enables individual digital collections owners to satisfy the requirements of aggregators even in cases where their IT and software infrastructure is limited and does not support them inherently. Managers of repositories/digital collections face the challenge of exposing their data via Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to multiple aggregators and conforming to their possibly differing requirements, for example on output metadata schemas and selective harvesting.

The authors developed a software server that is able to wrap existing systems or even metadata records in plain files as OAI-PMH sources. They analysed the functionality of OAI-PMH data providers in a flow of discrete steps and used a software library to modularise the software for these steps so that the whole process can be easily customised to the needs of each pair of OAI-PMH data provider and service provider. The developed server includes a mechanism for the implementation of schema mappings using an XML specification that can be defined by non-IT personnel, for example metadata experts. The server has been applied in various real-life use cases, in particular for providing content to Europeana.

It has been concluded through real-life use cases that it is indeed possible and feasible in practice to expose metadata records of digital collections via OAI-PMH even when the data sources do not support the required protocols and standards. Even advanced OAI-PMH features like selective harvesting can be supported. Mappings between input and output schemas in many practical cases can be implemented entirely or to a large extent as XML specifications by metadata experts instead of software developers.

Exposing data via OAI-PMH to aggregators like Europeana is made feasible/easier for digital collections owners, even when their software infrastructure does not inherently support the required protocols and standards.

The approach is original and applicable in practice to diverse technology environments, effectively addressing the indisputable fact of the heterogeneity of software and systems used to implement digital repositories and collections worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to boost multidisciplinary research by the building of an integrated catalogue or research assets metadata. Such an integrated catalogue should enable researchers to solve problems or analyse phenomena that require a view across several scientific domains.

There are two main approaches for integrating metadata catalogues provided by different e-science research infrastructures (e-RIs): centralised and distributed. The authors decided to implement a central metadata catalogue that describes, provides access to and records actions on the assets of a number of e-RIs participating in the system. The authors chose the CERIF data model for description of assets available via the integrated catalogue. Analysis of popular metadata formats used in e-RIs has been conducted, and mappings between popular formats and the CERIF data model have been defined using an XML-based tool for description and automatic execution of mappings.

An integrated catalogue of research assets metadata has been created. Metadata from e-RIs supporting Dublin Core, ISO 19139, DCAT-AP, EPOS-DCAT-AP, OIL-E and CKAN formats can be integrated into the catalogue. Metadata are stored in CERIF RDF in the integrated catalogue. A web portal for searching this catalogue has been implemented.

Only five formats are supported at this moment. However, description of mappings between other source formats and the target CERIF format can be defined in the future using the 3M tool, an XML-based tool for describing X3ML mappings that can then be automatically executed on XML metadata records. The approach and best practices described in this paper can thus be applied in future mappings between other metadata formats.

The integrated catalogue is a part of the eVRE prototype, which is a result of the VRE4EIC H2020 project.

The integrated catalogue should boost the performance of multi-disciplinary research; thus it has the potential to enhance the practice of data science and so contribute to an increasingly knowledge-based society.

A novel approach for creation of the integrated catalogue has been defined and implemented. The approach includes definition of mappings between various formats. Defined mappings are effective and shareable.

An electronic alerting service which gathers both conventional and electronic documents and presents them to users still needs a vocabulary to match documents with profiles. Based on a project in the Electronic Libraries Programme known as NewsAgent; a personalised current awareness service for library and information staff, a design for a controlled vocabulary is described based on three levels of specificity: Channels, Topics and Keywords. The printed models for these vocabularies are identified, and examples given from the field of Library and Information Services. NewsAgent decided to adopt the Dublin Core metadata scheme in which to include this vocabulary, and details of both the simple and advanced use of this metadata by NewsAgent are discussed and illustrated, including the use of standard resource types which include an indication of quality. The publications which were used in the trial of NewsAgent are identified, and some future developments in electronic alerting outlined.