Towards the integration of digital library applications via web services for use in a scientific workspace

Abstract

"Our project 'Generic Portals' focuses on the possibilities and problems created by the usage of web-technologies to support web-based Digital Library applications. We observe a divergence of services in the sphere of structured resources and scientific libraries' services. Publications in the form of digital resources have introduced new dynamics into the information exchange in the scientific communities. The changes in the publication process are formed by so-called structured resources, whereas the resource can be seen as an encapsulated object. For the exchange of information we have only to know the interface of the structured resource in detail. W3C has published a working draft which includes a language named Web Service Description Language (WSDL) for describing interfaces of services. A Web service interface is a shared connection between functional components of applications. We consider the requirements for the integration of DL-applications via Web services. We present an adapted process model for supply of DL-oriented Web services. Further we present a component-based approach to relate researchers' activities to so-called DL-oriented Web services. We obtain criteria for the description of DL-oriented Web services based on the researchers' working process. Finally, we present a brief overview what kind of Web technologies might be reused for a prototypical implementation of DL-oriented Web services." (author's abstract)