HILT (Case study)
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Contents |
OVERVIEW
Based at the University of Strathclyde HILT (High Level Thesaurus Project) has been a modular project, now in its fourth phase, funded by JISC and working with EDINA at the University of Edinburgh to create tools that allow cross searching by subject of heterogeneous information collections that may or may not share the same subject classification schemes.
Why is HILT necessary?
With the advent of the Internet information sources have become more diverse and less susceptible to the common classification systems of the past. Thus it was recognised that more sophisticated search systems are now needed that can bridge heterogeneous data sets and other information sources where necessary. HILT is an example of using a hierarchical thesaurus structure to enable cross searching of information sources both by humans and in future through machine to machine interoperability.
History of HILT
There have been four stages to the work of HILT so far:
- Phase 1: to investigate and analyse issues of cross-searching
- Phase 2: to develop a pilot terminologies server for cross searching resources by subject
- Phase 3: to build a machine to machine version of the terminologies server from phase 2
- Phase 4: to move from a pilot to a service testbed that will help define future need
Phase one involved testing the behaviour of a number of guinea pig users to verify what issues were involved in cross searching. Phase two produced a human-browsable terminologies server for cross searching. Phase 3 developed this further using SOAP-type web services. Phase four which is due to be completed in 2009 seeks to embed this technology within the JISC information environment.
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