Query Expansion via Library Classification System

Abstract

Managing the development and delivery of multilingual electronic library services is one of the major current challenges for making digital content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable. Digital libraries and OPAC-based traditional libraries are the most important source of reliable information used daily by scholars, researchers, knowledge workers and citizens to carry on their working (and leisure) activities. Facilitating access to multilingual document collections therefore is an important way of supporting the dissemination of knowledge and cultural content. CACAO offers an innovative approach for accessing, understanding and navigating multilingual textual content in digital libraries and OPACs, enabling European users to better exploit the available European electronic content. This paper describes the participation of the CACAO project consortium in the TEL@CLEF 2008 task and proposes a novel approach for exploiting library classification systems as a mean to drive query expansion.