Topic Map Presentation Framework: an Approach to Delivering Newspaper Content Over the Web

Abstract

This paper will discuss some of the requirements for the successful online delivery of newspaper archive content to users and examine an innovative approach taken to fulfil those requirements by using a semantic framework. This approach is based on the digital library delivery system configured by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC), the working name of which is the Topic Map Presentation Framework (TMPF). It has been developed as a production system at the NZETC since 2002 and is currently used to deliver the Centre’s own growing collection of digital resources, a nationally important website containing more than 40,000 pages and over halfamillion hyperlinks. Since 2005 the NZETC has been working with APEX to further develop the TMPF as means of providing sophisticated access to digitised newspaper archives wherein the semantic navigation of online resources greatly enhances the user experience in digital libraries. Using this approach, an ontology codifies an analysis of the structure and relationships in the domain of newspaper publishing and archiving, including publishers, issues, articles, pages, clippings, places, and dates. Metadata is automatically harvested from the source materials into this conceptual framework, producing a map of the content. This map is then used to present the content online in a meaningful structure. This paper will also briefly cover some of the open technologies used, including Topic Maps, the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, Apache Cocoon, and Apache Lucene.