MAG2DL: A framework for information retrieval and integration of distributed Geographic Digital Libraries

Geographic Digital Libraries (GDLs) are Digital Libraries (DLs) that provide an infrastructure for organizing, structuring, creating, storing, distributing, retrieving, and processing geo-referenced information, which is inherently heterogeneous with many distinct formats and collecting procedures. The standardization of GDLs involves not only the organization of data, but also issues related to the retrieval and integration of these data. In this paper, we propose the MAG2DL framework for information retrieval and integration of distributed GDLs by using mobile agent and GML technologies. Mobile agents are used for distributed information retrieval to benefit distributed computing in (mobile) Internet context, and GML is used to solve the heterogeneities of various geographic information sources.