Information Retrieval Service Description Study Based On Metadata Schema

The distributed environment is becoming the mainstream environment of all kinds of information resource systems. In this distributed environment, the problem of the discovery, transfer and integrated services between heterogeneous systems is one of the study emphases in the digital library field.This paper introduces the idea of information service description, based on the open description mechanisms, which is an effective method to the interoperability of the heterogeneous systems in the distributed environment; moreover, selects theinformation retrieval service as the study object-an important type of informationservice, analyses the significance of information service description and information retrieval service description; systematically researches and summarizes the service description mechanisms that support service discovery, reviews whether the existing service description languages and methods can be applied to service description of the open description mechanisms.The paper systemically introduces two study representatives in the aspect of service description: JISC IESR and Metasearch Initiative; analyses how they described the information services. According to the analysis, the paper draws the conclusion that metadata schema is a rather better method to service description of the open description mechanisms.The fourth chapter of the paper is the important part and researches the design of metadata schema of the information retrieval service description in depth; researchesthe necessary, principles, content and processes of the design of the metadata schema; moreover, proposes a cursory entities model of the metadata schema of the information retrieval service description and the properties elements that the metadata schema of the information retrieval service description must define; the author proposes the own opinions of the difficulties in the design of the metadata schema and the definition of properties elements.In the end, the paper analyses how to develop and consummate the metadata schema of the information retrieval service, and explores the application prospect of the metadata schema.