Application of catalogues to integrate heterogeneous data banks

Abstract

The problem of integrating independent data banks is manifold. One of the arising issues is that data models of the same or related subjects vary among implementations. Therefore, identification of analogous, (fundamentally) identical or just similar concepts is a must. In this paper we deal with this problem. Based on preliminary descriptions of concepts, our novel integration method reorganises all data by means of a so-called catalogue. The strict mathematical basis of the catalogue enables 1) discovering the correspondence among concepts of the sources irrespectively of their language, 2) effective searching for exactly matching, parallel or alternative, most similar elements in the unified data bank. Our approach affords those databases the ability of transparently providing extended, personalisable services of better quality to the clients, which is highly demanded and applicable by modern web agents. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.