Points of View: Conventional and ‘Neo-Conventional’ Access and Navigation in Digital Collections

Abstract

In an effort to assist users in the identification of significant Internet resources, libraries and librarians have begun to apply established library classification and subject schemes as the organizational framework for accessing and navigating these electronic sources. We will profile selected notable applications of national and international library classification schemes for organizing World Wide Web (WWW) resources as well as sites that have applied controlled vocabularies to facilitate access to selected collections of Net resources. With these and similar efforts as a conceptual foundation, we then focus on the potential application of new and emerging technologies to further enhance use of digital collections, notably intelligent software agents, information visualization techniques, auditory displays, and haptic interactive devices. We conclude with a review of significant Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies and computer-based ontologies, and speculate on their potential application for representing, accessing, and navigating digital resources.