SemaLink: An Approach For Semantic Browsing Through Large Distributed Document Spaces

Hypermedia retrieval in combination with querying is a very powerful document access metaphor for digital library systems. Conventional distributed hypermedia systems, however, suffer from some well-known problems that make effective, goal-directed document retrieval and maintenance impossible. On the one hand, relationships between documents are modeled on a very low level of abstraction, preventing knowledge re-use and user-adapted navigation through the document space. On the other hand, huge static web structures are prone to redundancies, inconsistencies and costly to maintain. In this paper we present an approach of a scalable distributed resource discovery and delivery system that offers access to information through querying and knowledge-based hypermedia browsing. Relationship knowledge is partitioned into handy, independent structures, modeled on a high level of abstraction apart from documents. Navigation paths are computed by the system, combining semantic networks with information retrieval. A theoretical framework as well as implementation issues are discussed.