Customizable layout-driven approach to querying digital libraries
Isabel F. Cruz, Wendy T. Lucas · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1998
In widely available multimedia digital libraries, querying, browsing, and displaying data pose new challenges given the diversity of the applications, of the users, and of the data. We address some of these challenges by tightly integrating querying with user-defined data presentation and by supporting browsing within query-defined groupings of the multimedia objects. Groupings use efficiently the screen real-estate and enhance the comprehension of the data. The user interface supports virtual document templates for specifying layout with associated visual query boxes for specifying document content. By nesting query boxes the user is able to define how the browsing is going to be performed. The visual nesting `drives' the actual querying process and therefore goes beyond the simple specification of the presentation. Examples are provided of the system as used to query the Perseus digital library of classical artifacts.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.