Resource discovery: modelling, cataloguing and searching

Abstract

In seeking information resources on the Internet, existing search systems exhibit uneven selectivity (B.C. Desai and R. Shinghall, 1996). This problem has prompted a number of researchers to turn their attention to the development and implementation of metadata models for use in indexing and searching on the WWW and Internet (B.C. Desai, 1995). The objective of our project is to design a system to enable users to access data of a catalog nature stored in heterogeneous distributed information systems. These data describe resources available from virtual libraries on the Internet, in general, and the World Wide Web, in particular. We present our version of metadata for modelling document like resources. We also present our approach to modelling the expertise of librarians for cataloging, user entry and search using a rule based system.