Time Schedule:
Stuart A Sutton
LIS 549
Seattle Campus
Introduction to innovative and specialized topics in information systems, architectures, and retrieval. Prerequisite: LIS 540.
Class description
DESCRIPTION:
Exploration of emerging theory and practice in digital library architectures for the Semantic Web. Topics include primary content repositories, metadata development (element sets and controlled vocabularies), metadata registry roles and services, organizational mechanisms, Web Service and advanced digital library search engines.
COMMENT:
This special topics course will examine cutting-edge notions behind advanced digital libraries. The instructor will assume that students in the class are willing and open to being exposed to basic technical issues of digital library infrastructure. The primay goal of the class is for students to learn about what will make the Web-based digital libraries of the future "tick." The following are among the topics to be explored:
--Primary Content Repositories. What are the emerging technologies that will make it possible to manage the primary resources (mixed- and multi-media) of the digital library and the institutional repository? We will do a tentative exploration of both dSpace and Fedora as examples of these repository technologies.
--Metadata for Digital Libraries. What's the cutting-edge state of metadata and metadata registries for digital libraries on the Semantic Web? How do you develop an abstract model to guide metadata development? How do you "Webize" controlled vocabularies for use on the Semantic Web? How do you "indentify" both metadata schemas (and their associated properties) and controlled vocabularies (and their member terms)? How do you "declare" metadata schemas (and their associated properties) and controlled vocabularies (and their member terms) by means of a schema language? And, how do you "publish" your declared schemas and controlled vocabularies for use by humans and machines on the Semantic Web?
--Organization and Retrieval Systems. What are the implications of the Semantic Web on organization of information? How do advanced retrieval engines operate on metadata structured for the Semantic Web using Resource Description Framework (RDF), OWL Web Ontology Language and other graph-based systems such as topic maps.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Students will learn through a combination of readings, lectures, demonstrations and exercises.
Recommended preparation
The instructor will assume that students in the class are willing and open to being exposed to basic technical issues of digital library infrastructure. While knowledge at any level of an SGML-based markup language (e.g., HTML and XML) will be useful, a basic comprehension of HTML tagging is sufficient. Students with advanced knowledge of XML, XML schema and Resource Description Framework (RDF) schema will be given appropriate work to advance their understandings.
Class assignments and grading
Assignments will be in the form of a series of exercises. There will be no papers or final projects.
Completion and quality of all assigned exercises. Class participation.
