System and method for providing a searchable library of electronic documents to a user

Abstract

A method and system for publishing a plurality of books for user access to information includes selecting a plurality of books, converting each book from a publisher's digital form, e.g., by training a tool to detect characteristic features (such as layout, typeface, and hierarchical or organizational features such as chapter headings, captions, drawings and tables), and extracting text or data information of the book tagged with the features. This produces a searchable library database arranged, for example, as an xml database indexed by book structure such that a user may remotely, over the internet or other network, access the database, search desired content, and view an image of a portion of the book with the desired data. The system includes a user registration module to identify an authorized user, and may maintain a personal bookshelf for the user. A search engine may score search results based on their position in the hierarchy or other factors, determining degree of relevance of text or data information located by the search engine. The other factors may include position of located search data in the hierarchy, identification of search data in the user's personal library or in a prior search by the user, or degree of match of data identified in the search. An interface with a commercially available search engine may operate to adapt the search. When provided a search query by a user, it may search for an exact match and score hits for relevance, and in the event an exact match is not found, operate to expand the query and return hits in order of rank together with an indication of the expanded search. The user may thus ascertain a degree of likely relevance of returned text or data information. The relational database may include hyperlinks to section headings and related data passages, such that a user accessing a page of a book may immediately view related data and context of a page. The relational database is indexed by logical subunits of the book such that expanded searches for Boolean combinations or proximity of elements span page breaks of book text to identify all instances of the desired search data. The search engine may expand a search if all hits have low ranking, and may suppress hits of low ranking when the search produces hits of high ranking. In further embodiments, the search engine may search tables, drawings and formulae of the converted book file.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is related to and claims the priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 170,038 filed Dec. 10, 1999. That application is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] The invention relates generally to a system and method for providing a searchable library of electronic documents to a user and more specifically to a system and method for providing a searchable library of electronic books which can be accessed by a user over a global computer network such as the Internet. [0003] Book publishers publish many books only in hard copy form. In many instances these hard copy books are not available to individuals until the books reach retail stores or are available for purchase through mail order or on-line services. In order for an individual to have access to the contents of the hard copy book, the individual must either go to a retail stor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention is a system and method for providing a searchable library of electronic documents to a user. The electronic library system includes an electronic document database, a search module, a user database, a user verification module, a web site server, a communication network, and at least one user computer. The user can access the library through a subscription service and can search the database using key word queries. The system also includes electronic document conversion computers which convert hard copy documents into electronic form for electronic publication. The invention allows users to access information at any time and provides a convenient and time-efficient method for searching for relevant documents."

Problems solved by technology

In many instances these hard copy books are not available to individuals until the books reach retail stores or are available for purchase through mail order or on-line services.

In certain instances this causes a problem for an individual who requires instant information at time of day when retail bookstores are not open for business.

This is a time consuming process and the information desired by the individual may still be located in the book, even if it is not identified in the summary or in the table of contents.

There is no automatic mechanism for searching for key words in the text of a hard copy book.

In many instances it is prohibitively expensive for an individual to purchase all the relevant books, and new books are constantly being published.

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