Developing Query Patterns

Query patterns enable effective information tools and provide guidance to users interested in posing complex questions about objects. Semantically, query patterns represent important questions, while syntactically they impose the correct formulation of queries. In this paper we address the development of query patterns at successive representation layers so as to expose dominant information requirements on one hand, and structures that can support effective user interaction and efficient implementation of query processing on the other. An empirical study for the domain of cultural heritage reveals an initial set of recurrent questions, which are then reduced to a modestly sized set of query patterns. A set of Datalog rules is developed in order to formally define these patterns which are also expressed as SPARQL queries.