In-browser digital library services

Abstract

Service models for digital libraries have looked into how services may be decomposed into modules and components for greater flexiblity. These models are, however, mostly aimed at server-side applications. With the emergence of Ajax and similar techniques for processing XML documents within a Web browser, it has now become feasible for a browser to perform far more of the computational tasks traditionally encompassed in server-side DL services. Among other advantages, moving computation to the client can result in improved performance and scalability. As a new twist on service oriented computing, it is argued in this paper that digital library services can be provided partially or wholly through applications that execute client-side. Two case studies are provided to illustrate that such in-browser services are feasible and in fact more powerful and flexible than the traditional server-side service model. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.