DBClear: A Generic System for Clearinghouses

Abstract

Clearinghouses – or subject gateways – are domain-specific collections of links to resources on the Internet. The links are described with metadata and structured according to a domain-specific subject hierarchy. Users access the information by searching in the metadata or by browsing the subject hierarchy.

The standards for metadata vary across existing clearinghouses and different technologies for storing and accessing the metadata are used. This makes it difficult to distribute the editorial or administrative work involved in maintaining a clearinghouse, or to exchange information with other systems.

DBClear is a generic, platform-independent clearinghouse system, whose metadata schema can be adapted to different standards. The data is stored in a relational database. It includes a workflow component to support distributed maintenance and automation modules for link checking and metadata extraction. The presentation of the clearinghouse on the Web can be modified to allow seamless integration into existing web sites.