With the increase in the number of distributed library information resources, users
may have to interact with different user interfaces, learn to switch their mental models
between these interfaces, and familiarise themselves with controlled vocabularies
used by different resources. For this reason, library professionals have developed
library portals to integrate these distributed information resources, and assist end-users
in cross-accessing distributed resources via a single access point in their own
library. There are two important subject-based services that a library portal system
might be able to provide. The first is a federated search service, which refers to a
process where a user can input a query to cross-search a number of information
resources. The second is a subject cross-browsing service, which can offer a
knowledge navigation tree to link subject schemes used by distributed resources.
However, the development of subject cross-searching and browsing services has been
impeded by the heterogeneity of different KOS (Knowledge Organisation System)
used by different information resources. Due to the lack of mappings between
different KOS, it is impossible to offer a subject cross-browsing service for a library
portal system. [Continues.
