Direct XPATH querying on SKOS format thesauri

We have created a demonstrator illustrating the use of online XPATH querying
techniques on SKOS format thesaurus datasets. The demonstrator takes the
form of a search & browse interface operating against SKOS-RDF versions of a
number of (selectable) thesauri. The demonstrator is available at:
http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/~facet/formats/skos/skos_search.htm
<http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/~facet/formats/skos/skos_search.htm>  

Current options are:
*	Alexandria Digital Library Feature Type Thesaurus (03/07/02 release)
*	GCL - Government Category List (version 2.1)
*	APAIS - Australian Public Affairs Information Service (April 2004
edition)

We created the SKOS version of the Feature Type Thesaurus by direct XSL
transformation of a (MultiTES?) XML data file supplied by Linda Hill at ADL.
The GCL & APAIS thesauri were created by Alistair Miles, available from
http://isegserv.itd.rl.ac.uk/skos/gcl/
<http://isegserv.itd.rl.ac.uk/skos/gcl/>  and
http://isegserv.itd.rl.ac.uk/skos/apais/
<http://isegserv.itd.rl.ac.uk/skos/apais/>  respectively.

The XPATH techniques are not intended as a universal approach to thesaurus
searching and browsing but as examples of some useful techniques that may
readily be employed on relatively small standardised thesaurus datasets to
achieve responsive interfaces. This is part of recent exploratory work on
thesaurus representation formats in general - see
http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/~facet/formats/
<http://www.comp.glam.ac.uk/~facet/formats/>  for details.


Ceri Binding
University of Glamorgan - School of Computing
* Tel: +44 (0)1443 480480 Ext: 3610
* Fax: +44 (0)1443 654022
* Email: cbinding@glam.ac.uk