L. Kovács, N. Fuhr, and C. Meghini (Eds.): ECDL 2007, LNCS 4675, pp. 285–296, 2007. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007 Extending Semantic Matching Towards Digital Library Contexts László Kovács and András Micsik MTA SZTAKI, Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Department of Distributed Systems, Budapest, Hungary {laszlo.kovacs, micsik}@sztaki.hu Abstract. Matching users’ goals with available offers is a traditional research topic for electronic market places and service-oriented architectures. The new area of Semantic Web Services introduced the possibility of semantic matching between user goals and services. Authors show in the paper what kind of benefits semantic matching may provide for digital libraries. Various practical examples are given for the usefulness of semantic matching, and a novel algorithm is introduced for computing semantic matches. The implementation and operation of matching are explained using a digital document search scenario. Keywords: Semantic matchmaking, discovery. 1 Introduction Libraries have a rich and old tradition of describing, cataloguing and finding content. Library catalogues and digital library systems traditionally use non-semantic, keyword-based search techniques. Current digital library systems are mostly available as distributed, Internet-based applications, and we think that the new technologies of the Semantic Web has much to offer for them as well. Semantic description of library content and user profiles helps the creation of new user interfaces and information visualization techniques, and it also enhances ways for personalization. Semantic description of system capabilities and service-oriented architecture enables the creation of more flexible and dynamic digital library systems. With the application of Semantic Web Services not only the content, but also the library services can be discovered and selected on-demand. Most of the previously listed use cases rely on the primitive operation of semantic matching or matchmaking, which associate semantically described artifacts with a semantically described goal or desire. This is parallel to the query and the query result in traditional IR systems, but it is clear that IR techniques cannot be used for semantic matching. Semantic matching needs new methods and new base infrastructure, which is currently under intensive research. In this paper we investigate the possibilities and benefits of semantic matchmaking within digital libraries and describe a working environment for semantic matching.