Resource discovery in distributed digital libraries through visual knowledge navigation

In order to support users to search and browse for various resources, digital libraries are composed of discovery systems which provide user interface and information retrieve system. Recent researches in Information Retrieval have investigated different techniques through improving precision and recall to enhance the effectiveness of discovery system in digital libraries. In this paper, we present our work to enhance discovery system effectiveness with a different approach, through resource discovery based on visual knowledge navigation. In our Strand Map Services project under National Science Digital Library, we introduce the visual resource discovery system called conceptual browsing interfaces, to help educators and learners to locate, comprehend and use educational resources in digital libraries. The paper begins with a short introduction of the Strand Map Services. Then we illustrate the service architecture, the design and implementation of its major components. We will focus our discussion of how the visualization system of the Strand Map Services supports the visual knowledge navigation for distributed digital libraries. This includes the knowledge acquisition of the conceptual browsing interfaces, different knowledge representations in the system perspective and user interface perspective, visualization system modules, algorithm and Web services integration to use visual knowledge navigation to enhance resource discovery in digital libraries.