Constructing Geographic Digital Libraries using a Hypermedia Framework

This paper presents an object oriented hypermedia database framework for designing and building digital libraries, which are treated as enhanced hypermedia applications. It is based on combining and extending results from two domains: the navigation characteristics of hypertext systems, and the view mechanism and the persistent storage management facility of an object oriented database management system. As a result, users can alternate between two integrated types of interaction modes. The hypertext dimension of the framework allows navigation via static and dynamic hyperlinks; the object oriented database support enables querying by content and metadata management. The framework includes still a digital library design methodology that guides the implementation of digital libraries over the OODBMS. This proposal integrates hypermedia and DL concepts to a database environment, being instantiated on the realm of geographic data.