A dynamic RSS information push service mechanism based on ontology of user information needs

Purpose – This aim of this article is to propose a technical solution for digital libraries to establish the information needs ontology based on a comprehensive understanding of personalized user information needs and offer an information push service by really simple syndication (RSS) in a ubiquitous computing environment.Design/methodology/approach – First, the authors formalize an ontology model applicable to the ubiquitous computing environment to describe user information needs comprehensively. The information needs related to the user's research activities are regarded as the ontology, which is described with web ontology language (OWL), and thus an ontology knowledgebase is established. Second, in light of the user's explicit information needs, the digital library finds the hidden information needs from the ontology knowledgebase, and also extracts the information resources required by the user from the corresponding database and then pushes them to the user by means of RSS. Finally, users can brow...