Abstract
In this chapter, we describe X-system, a general digital library platform which is capable of handling large-scale digital contents with flexible, extensible management features. The development of X-system achieves several important goals of modern digital library systems, including a fully functional system, neutral and portable architecture, stackable modules, data exchange, and universal access. The model and architecture are discussed in this chapter. Moreover, several extension case studies of X-system are demonstrated to show the extensibility of our system. In addition, to act as a basic digital archive/library system, the X-system has been adopted as various different usages, including e-learning platform, knowledge management platform, and library circulation system.
TopDesign Issues Of Digial Library Systems
As mentioned earlier, the most important features of a modern digital library system are flexibility and generality. Since 2003, the year of X-system’s announcement, several extensions and applications have been developed and deployed. The aim of our research is to create a powerful digital library system which meets the following important design issues:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Xpath: A W3C standard language for finding information in an XML document. XPath is used to navigate through elements and attributes in an XML document.
XQuery: Powerful and convenient language designed for processing and querying XML data.
Handle System: General purpose distributed information system that provides efficient, extensible, and secure identifier and resolution services for use on networks such as the Internet.
Ontology: A specification of a conceptualization. Ontology can be said to study conceptions of reality.
XML:DB API: A standard application programming interface (API) for native XML databases.
XUpdate: XML update language, a project under development by XML:DB for definition of a language for updating information in an XML document.
XSL: A language for expressing style sheets which describes how to display an XML document of a given type.