Abstract
Faceted thesauri group classification terms into hierarchically arranged facets. They enable faceted browsing, a well-known browsing technique that makes it possible to navigate digital collections by recursively choosing terms in the facet hierarchy. In this paper we develop an approach to achieve faceted browsing in live collections, in which not only the contents but also the thesauri can be constantly reorganized. We start by introducing a digital collection model letting users reconfigure facet hierarchies. Then we introduce navigation automata as an efficient way of supporting faceted browsing in these collections. Since, in the worst-case, the number of states in these automata can grow exponentially, we propose two alternative indexing strategies able to bridge this complexity: inverted indexes and navigation dendrograms. Finally, by comparing these strategies in the context of Clavy, a system for managing collections with reconfigurable structures in digital humanities and educational settings, we provide evidence that navigation dendrogram organization outperforms the inverted index-based one.
Paper Type
Event
Browsing Digital Collections with Reconfigurable Faceted Thesauri
Faceted thesauri group classification terms into hierarchically arranged facets. They enable faceted browsing, a well-known browsing technique that makes it possible to navigate digital collections by recursively choosing terms in the facet hierarchy. In this paper we develop an approach to achieve faceted browsing in live collections, in which not only the contents but also the thesauri can be constantly reorganized. We start by introducing a digital collection model letting users reconfigure facet hierarchies. Then we introduce navigation automata as an efficient way of supporting faceted browsing in these collections. Since, in the worst-case, the number of states in these automata can grow exponentially, we propose two alternative indexing strategies able to bridge this complexity: inverted indexes and navigation dendrograms. Finally, by comparing these strategies in the context of Clavy, a system for managing collections with reconfigurable structures in digital humanities and educational settings, we provide evidence that navigation dendrogram organization outperforms the inverted index-based one.
Recommended Citation
Gayoso-Cabada, J., Rodríguez-Cerezo, D., & Sierra-Rodriguez, J.-L. (2016). Browsing Digital Collections with Reconfigurable Faceted Thesauri. In J. Gołuchowski, M. Pańkowska, C. Barry, M. Lang, H. Linger, & C. Schneider (Eds.), Information Systems Development: Complexity in Information Systems Development (ISD2016 Proceedings). Katowice, Poland: University of Economics in Katowice. ISBN: 978-83-7875-307-0. http://aisel.aisnet.org/isd2014/proceedings2016/CogScience/5.