New book on Semantic Digital Libraries
Probably you heard by now, but if you didn’t – here is the big news: I have published a second book on Semantic Digital Libraries: Improving Usability of Information Discovery with Semantic and Social Services.
Compared to the previous one, it is not a compilation of articles contributed by myself and my colleagues; this book is based on my thesis. The book covers most important aspects of what Semantic Digital Libraries are and what is that they can offer. I present a very thorough review of literature describing various advanced digital library projects and components. Based on the identified requirements I propose architecture, data model and classification of ontologies for semantic digital libraries. I describe two example information retrieval and knowledge management techniques, which utilize semantic web and social networking technologies. Finally, I briefly describe the JeromeDL system and provide very detailed and thorough analyses of evaluation comparing usability of end-user services offered by a semantic digital library with those offered by a classic digital library.
The book is available for purchase at lulu.com.
Since I understand that not everyone could afford buying a complete, hardcover version, I have prepared an array of different versions (see below) of this book, ranging from Hardcover through Paperback through E-Book. There is also a lite version of this book, which does not contain the attachments.
| Hardcover | Paperback | E-Book | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full version | ISBN: 978-1-4452-7770-7 €50 |
ISBN: 978-1-4452-8243-5 €30 |
PDF €15 |
| Lite version* | ISBN: 978-1-4452-8864-2 €40 |
Lite Paperback version €20 |
ePUB** €15
Amazon Kindle $14.99+Taxes  |
* NOTE: Lite version does not contain appendix
** Open standard format, compatible with, e.g., iPad DRM-enabled, compatible with Adobe Digital Editions
I hope your will find this book a good read and very helpful for your studies and work.
(Pssst, come and visit our Facebook group tomorrow: you will learn how to get the book cheaper over the next couple of days)
New “home” for Semantic Digital Libraries
January was madness: I was hoping for this year to be more relaxed after all the rush with thesis and the company in 2009. But it did not start like one; guess I should blame my workholic attitude. Maybe I should do what my supervisor once did: hang a note (so I can see it) saying “Just say NO”.
I have been asked many times recently about materials regarding Semantic Digital Libraries but could not really point to just one location. Yes, there are all my papers at http://library.deri.ie (which happens to be down quite often ever since I left the institute), and many of my presentations are on slideshare, and than there is my book, and my thesis, and my tutorials … I realized that there has to be (finally) a place where I can gather and reference all of that.
And here it is: http://semdl.info/. At the moment you will find there all major presentations I did related to the topic, archive information about tutorials we gave (together with complete slides from most of them), and references to two of my books on Semantic Digital Libraries. Most likely I will use our infrastructure to set up a JeromeDL with all the papers on the subject and reference them there.
But, it’s not the end: I do not want it to be a one-man show. I hope that all other people that are interested in the subject will help me to fill in the site with more materials and make it alive (someone already suggested a blog 
). Please let me know if you want to join the effort.
Propozycje tematow na Jesienne Spotkania PTI
Jak co roku zwracam się do was z prośba o głosowanie na tematy zgłoszone przeze mnie do Jesiennych Spotkań PTI.
new knowledge management on Web 3.0 services
I have been extremely busy recently. Probably this is why I was not blogging too much.
But here is the reason:
The last two months I have been building a new software platform for knowledge management on Web 3.0 called digi.me.
It is based on the research of my team (formerly Corrib.org, now KnowledgeHives.com) on semantic digital libraries, collaborative filtering, social networking and semantic web.
digi.me follows and extends certain ideas we have implemented in the research prototype, http://notitio.us/, presented at the Semantic Web Challenge 2007.
The core idea is to use explicit social network of each user and semantic annotations to discover, share and recommend interesting information.
We encourage users to annotate and classify (not just tag) interesting sites; their friends can subscribe to folders representing different topics.
If you know social bookmarking services (like del.icio.us) – think about it as a social bookmarking site on steroids and without letting users to get lost in the cloud of tags.
There are two services which have been set up using digi.me platform already:
- http://www.węzełki.pl/ – a service designed for the Polish users
- http://digi.me/ – a service for the international audience
Both services operate feature English and Polish translation. If you register to one – you gain access to the other one as well.
Both services are in the private beta phase at the moment, but I have a number of invitations to this service to distribute. Please reply to this post.
Evaluation of social and semantic technologies in digital libraries
Please feel free to enter http://q.digime.name/ and help us with evaluating our prototype solutions.
Bill is back
Today, we’ve met Bill in the office. He came just for a short while, but it was plain to see – he does feel better than before.
I am very happy. I hope he will fully recover from his illness.
In the meantime, welcome back Bill.
