Semantics of Query Construction User Interfaces of Web-based Search Engines for Digital Libraries

The effective and dynamic integration of digital library search and meta-search engines into the Semantic Web is a demanding as well as central task. We tackle this task by a flexible Semantic Web Application approach, which is based on the support of two additional types of models, semantic domain models and conceptual user interface models, as well as of flexible mappings between these models. Based on an analysis of query construction interfaces of DL search engines an query construction ontology has been developed as a basis for the creation of semantic domain models for DL search engine user interfaces following the Semantic Web Application approach. This ontology is discussed in this paper and applied in the construction of a semantic domain model for a simple example query construction user interface.