Ontologies provide a conceptual structure for organizing and arranging information in digital libraries. They define concepts, properties, and relationships in a domain to enable improved searching and navigation beyond simple keyword matching. Well-developed ontologies allow complex queries about concepts and their relationships. Digital libraries use ontologies to enhance organization, access, and discovery of their collections in digital form.

1. Ontologies and Digital Libraries
PRATT Nicholas C. Jackson PRATT
Digital Library?
What is an Ontology “the use of computers to store library materials appearing in
Ontology Engineering
electronic (digital) format.” Digital records of collections
“What exists is that which can be represented! ontology is “Defining terms in the domain and relation among them.
“encoded in order to be stored, retrieved, and read by computer
the study of what is real, what is reality, and or what existence” Defining concepts in the domain (classes), arranging the
(Gruber,1). “An ontology is an explicit description of a domain; to collect, organize, preserve, and access information and
concepts in a hierarchy (subclasses-superclasses hierarchy),
knowledge records in digital form.” UMDL Ontology- http://www-
concepts, properties and attributes of concepts, constraints on defining which attributes and properties classes can have and
properties and attributes, individuals” (Noy, 2). personal.umich.edu/~peterw/Ontology/Beethoven/demo.html
constraints on their values, defining individuals and filling in
values.” (Noy, 3).
Ontology vs. Vocabulary, Taxonomy, and
Thesauri
“A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms. A taxonomy is a
UMDL Ontology- http://www-
collection of controlled vocabulary terms organized into a personal.umich.edu/~peterw/Ontology/Beethoven/demo.html
hierarchical structure. A thesaurus is a networked collection of
McGuinness, D. L. (2003). Ontologies Come of Age. Spinning the
controlled vocabulary terms. A formal ontology is a controlled
Semantic Web: Bringing the animal
vocabulary expressed in an ontology representation language”
World wide Web to Its Full Potential. MIT Press.
(Jernst, 1).
Uses in digital libraries
“The ontology enables concept-based searching that can sick animal
mammal
improve precision of results far beyond common keyword
matching” “The ontologies has the potential to offer
navigation support that would facilitate the seeking
has
process…” It “provide a conceptual structure that”
organization and arrangement information (2006, Patuelli, 4).
disease
dog
rabid animal
has
has
rabies
rabid dog
Jernst. (2003). What are the difference between a vocabulary, a taxonomy, a thesaurus, an
ontology, and a meta-model?
http://www.isi.edu/isd/LOOM/LOOM-HOME.html
McGuinness, D. L. (2003). Ontologies Come of Age. Spinning the Semantic Web: Bringing the
World wide Web to Its Full Potential. MIT Press.
“The rise of the digital library is an important step in the
Marcum, . 2002.
Noy, N. F. McGuinness, D. L. (2000) Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your
development of the library as a cultural resource” (Marcum, 2002,
First Ontology. Stanford University. James W. (2002) Beyond Visual Culture: The Challenge of Visual Ecology. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 189-206.
201).
Noy, N. F., Ontology Engineering for the semantic web and beyond.
Pattuelli, M.C. (2006). Context for content: Shaping learning objects and modeling a domain
ontology from the teachers' perspective. In Blandford A. & Gow, J. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Workshop on Digital Libraries in the Context of Users' Broader Activities (DL-CUBA), pp. 23-27. JCDL 2006, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.