Digital Libraries are complex and advanced forms of information systems which extend and augment their physical counterparts by amplifying existing resources and services and enabling development of new kinds of human problem solving and expression. Their complexity arises from the data-rich domain of discourse as well as from extended demands for multi-disciplinary input, involving distributed systems architectures, structured digital documents, collaboration support, human-computer interaction, information filtering, etc. In addition to the broad range of technical issues, ethics and intellectual property rights add to the complication that is normally associated with the development, maintenance, and use of Digital Libraries. The Second European Conference on Digital Libraries (ECDL’98) builds upon the success of the first of this series of European Conferences on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries, held last year in Pisa, Italy, September 1-3, 1997. This series of conferences is partially funded by the TMR Programme of the European Commission and is actively supported and promoted by the European Research Consortium on Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). The aim is to bring together the different communities involved in the development of Digital Libraries, to review progress and to discuss strategies, research and technological development (RTD) issues, as well as specific topics related to the European context. These communities include professionals from universities, research centres, industry, government agencies, public libraries, etc.

This supplement examines achieving synergy between computer power and human reason to the unified medical language system (UMLS).

Digital libraries (DLs) have introduced new technologies, as well as leveraging, enhancing, and integrating related technologies, since the early 1990s. These efforts have been enriched through a formal approach, e.g., the 5S (Societies, Scenarios, Spaces, Structures, Streams) framework, which is discussed in two earlier volumes in this series. This volume should help advance work not only in DLs, but also in the WWW and other information systems. Drawing upon four (Kozievitch, Murthy, Park, Yang) completed and three (Elsherbiny, Farag, Srinivasan) in-process dissertations, as well as the efforts of collaborating researchers and scores of related publications, presentations, tutorials, and reports, this book should advance the DL field with regard to at least six key technologies. By integrating surveys of the state-of-the-art, new research, connections with formalization, case studies, and exercises/projects, this book can serve as a computing or information science textbook. It can support studies in cyber-security, document management, hypertext/hypermedia, IR, knowledge management, LIS, multimedia, and machine learning. Chapter 1, with a case study on fingerprint collections, focuses on complex (composite, compound) objects, connecting DL and related work on buckets, DCC, and OAI-ORE. Chapter 2, discussing annotations, as in hypertext/hypermedia, emphasizes parts of documents, including images as well as text, managing superimposed information. The SuperIDR system, and prototype efforts with Flickr, should motivate further development and standardization related to annotation, which would benefit all DL and WWW users. Chapter 3, on ontologies, explains how they help with browsing, query expansion, focused crawling, and classification. This chapter connects DLs with the Semantic Web, and uses CTRnet as an example. Chapter 4, on (hierarchical) classification, leverages LIS theory, as well as machine learning, and is important for DLs as well as the WWW. Chapter 5, on extraction from text, covers document segmentation, as well as how to construct a database from heterogeneous collections of references (from ETDs); i.e., converting strings to canonical forms. Chapter 6 surveys the security approaches used in information systems, and explains how those approaches can apply to digital libraries which are not fully open. Given this rich content, those interested in DLs will be able to find solutions to key problems, using the right technologies and methods. We hope this book will help show how formal approaches can enhance the development of suitable technologies and how they can be better integrated with DLs and other information systems.

Proceedings of a May 1999 forum on current issues in digital library research and technology. Papers are divided in sections on ontology and structure, database querying and mining, video, mathematics and musical applications, text and information retrieval, and metadata. Discussion encompasses area

Since its first volume in 1960, Advances in Computers has presented detailed coverage of innovations in hardware and software and in computer theory, design, and applications. It has also provided contributors with a medium in which they can examine their subjects in greater depth and breadth than that allowed by standard journal articles. As a result, many articles have become standard references that continue to be of significant, lasting value despite the rapid growth taking place in the field.

The Encyclopedia of Image Processing presents a vast collection of well-written articles covering image processing fundamentals (e.g. color theory, fuzzy sets, cryptography) and applications (e.g. geographic information systems, traffic analysis, forgery detection). Image processing advances have enabled many applications in healthcare, avionics, robotics, natural resource discovery, and defense, which makes this text a key asset for both academic and industrial libraries and applied scientists and engineers working in any field that utilizes image processing. Written by experts from both academia and industry, it is structured using the ACM Computing Classification System (CCS) first published in 1988, but most recently updated in 2012.

ECDL2000, the Fourth European Conference on Research and Advanced Te- nology for Digital Libraries, is being held this year in Lisbon, Portugal, following previous events in Pisa (1997), Heraklion (1998), and Paris (1999). One major goal of the ECDL conference series has been to draw information professionals, stakeholders, and user communities from both the research world and from - dustry into a discussion of the alternative technologies, policies, and scenarios for global digital libraries. The success of previous conferences makes them a hard act to follow. The eld of digital libraries draws on a truly diverse set of scienti c and technical disciplines. In the past three years, moreover, global cooperation on research and development has emerged as an urgent priority, particularly in the new European Framework Programme and in the Digital Library Initiative in the United States. Because of this diversity, the eld is perhaps still struggling for an identity. But this struggle for identity is itself a source of energy and creativity. P- ticipants in this eld feel themselves to be part of a special community, with special people. Each of us may claim expertise on a narrow issue, with speci c projects, but the choices we make and the methods we use in local solutions can have unforeseen impacts within a growing universe of interconnected resources.