Authority Services in Global Information Spaces - A requirements analysis and feasibility study

The global access to a variety of heterogeneous information sources world-wide gives raise to new requirements for advanced access methods and the conceptual compatibility between those systems. We regard the usage of thesauri as a key feature to achieve the logical integration. Thesauri are not seen as passive dictionaries, but as active, evolving components in the network, as "authority services", which are continuously adapted to the needs of the users and the systems requesting authority service. The integration and adaption requires communication and coordination between information sources, their maintainers, authority services and thesaurus providers. We investigate the feasibility from a computer science point of view, proposing a general architecture, and establishing functional specifications for the authority service on the level of data management, data exchange interfaces and user interface.