Vertical Digital Library Portals


The scientific literature is a vast mine of past and current knowledge painstakingly constructed by the research community, and yet our means to access it is constrained by the current query interfaces and search engines, despite tremendous progresses made in its online availability.

The problem is two folded: one is to get to the right set of literatures in response to an intended query, and the other is to digest the contents of the retrieved literature. The goal of the vertical digital library portal (VDL) approach is to address the first issue, particularly aimed at providing biomedical investigators and interested users an enhanced access interface with interactive, multifaceted presentation of results and focused coverage.

The VDL framework consists of four interrelated components: (a) newly enabled methodological techniques for information organization and retrieval; (b) a general-purpose system architecture; (c) a systematic and semi-automated process for constructing new verticals; (d) a feasible content harvesting, maintenance and update procedure.

For working prototypes, see: