Modeling Integration and Reuse of Heterogeneous Terminologies in Faceted Browsing Systems

We integrate heterogeneous terminologies into our category-theoretic model of faceted browsing and show that existing terminologies and vocabularies can be reused as facets in a cohesive, interactive system. Commonly found in online search engines and digital libraries, faceted browsing systems depend upon one or more taxonomies which outline the structure and content of the facets available for user interaction. Controlled vocabularies or terminologies are often externally curated and are available as a reusable resource across systems. We demonstrated previously that category theory can abstractly model faceted browsing in a way that supports the development of interfaces capable of reusing and integrating multiple models of faceted browsing. We extend this model by illustrating that terminologies can be reused and integrated as facets across systems with examples from the biomedical domain.