Spatialized Browsing in Large Data Archives

Exponentially growing data archives emphasize the need for efficient techniques and novel approaches to find and extract information. Information visualization has emerged in the Information Retrieval domain to facilitate access to large databases. This development acknowledges the need to focus on higher level cognitive processes in information seeking. Graphic depictions of large databases are increasingly based on the spatial metaphor. These representations are also known as spatialized views or information spaces. Whereas space as a data property has implications for the design and implementation of spatial information systems, this paper explores whether commonly used spatial concepts could be used as browsing metaphors to explore a digital library catalog. A proof of concept is provided that illustrates how spatial metaphors might be embodied in a query interface to visually explore the catalog of the Alexandria Digital Library. This experimental interface includes an information landscape that is based on three spatial concepts, distance (similarity), arrangement (dispersion and concentration), and scale (level of detail).