SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING A SEARCHABLE LIBRARY OF ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS TO A USER
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.
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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 INVENTIONThe 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.
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 store and purchase the book or order the book and wait for the book to be delivered. In both instances the book is not immediately available to the individual upon the individual desiring the book. 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.
In addition, in order for an individual to determine if a book in hard copy form contains desired information, the individual must read the back cover, a summary of the book or scan the table of contents. 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. Further, many books published on the same topic may contain different information which is valuable to the individual. In many instances it is prohibitively expensive for an individual to purchase all the relevant books, and new books are constantly being published.
What is desired then is a system and method for providing a searchable library of electronic documents which is accessible to an individual at any time. What is also desired is a system and method for publishing a hard copy document in an electronic form which may be searched by an individual. The present invention permits such functionality.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention relates to 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 electronic library system is used for providing a searchable library of electronic documents to a user. The library of electronic documents is made accessible to a user upon the user obtaining a subscription to the electronic document library service. In one embodiment, the user pays a monthly fee in order to access documents stored in the electronic document library. The electronic documents may be books, magazines, or any other document which is in electronic form. In one embodiment, the electronic books are technical and computer books. The electronic documents may be accessed by a user computer by accessing the electronic document library's web site through a communication network. In one embodiment the communication network is a global computer network such as the Internet.
The invention also relates to a method for searching the electronic document database. In one embodiment, the user enters a key word query to search for documents in the electronic document database. The search module searches the document database in response to the query entered by the user. In one embodiment, the search module retrieves all the documents which satisfy the requirements of the key word query. In another embodiment, the search module retrieves the documents which are most relevant to the user's request. In yet another embodiment, the search module expands the search parameters in order to locate relevant documents.
The invention further relates to a system and method for publishing a hard copy document in an electronic form which may be searched by a user. In one embodiment, the electronic library system includes electronic document conversion computers which convert documents from hard copy form into electronic form. In one such embodiment, the electronic document conversion computers convert documents which are in an electronic form used by publishers to print hard copy documents into a form for electronic publication. The electronic form of documents used by publishers may be files from layout programs such as PageMaker, QuarkExpress, FrameMaker, or any other publishing program.
The present invention has the advantage of providing a searchable library of electronic documents which is accessible to a user at any time of the day. The invention has the further advantage of providing a library containing a quantity of documents which the user may not otherwise have access to and which is searchable by a user through key word searches. The invention therefore allows a user to have access to information at anytime that information is required and provides the user with a convenient and time efficient method for searching for the documents which are the most relevant to the user's needs.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. The above and further advantages of this invention may be better understood by referring to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Like reference characters in the respective drawn figures indicate corresponding parts.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In broad overview, and referring to
In one embodiment, the documents available in the document database 12 are documents which are commercially available from publishers. In one such embodiment, the electronic document library provider obtains the right to electronically publish the documents from the publisher. The electronic document library provider provides the publisher with compensation in return for the right to electronically publish the document. In one embodiment the compensation is a flat fee. In another embodiment, the compensation is a royalty-based fee. For example, the electronic document library provider may pay each publisher a percentage of the subscription fees obtained from users. The fee may be based on the number of documents the publisher provides. In another embodiment the fee paid to the publisher is based on the number of users who access the publisher's documents. In yet another embodiment, the fee paid to the publisher is based on the number of times the publisher's documents are accessed.
In still another embodiment, the electronic document library provider negotiates with each publisher the percentage of the electronic document library provider's revenue reserved for royalties. The electronic document library provider's royalty pool size is then a blended average of the negotiated rates with each publisher. The publisher then competes based on content usage (i.e., retrievals) for a piece of their view of the royalty pool. The usage calculation is weighted: page retrievals, placing a book on a bookshelf, and the list price of the book all factor into usage points for a publisher. The electronic document library provider then divides up the royalty pool as seen by each publisher by getting a percentage of their usage points versus total usage points for all publishers. The royalty payments are made quarterly.
The document database 12 provides a central location for storing the electronic documents that may be accessed by a user. The electronic documents may be books, magazines, or any other document which is in electronic form. In one embodiment, the electronic books are technical and computer books. The electronic documents may be accessed by a user computer 24 as described in more detail below. In one embodiment, the document database 12 is maintained by a third party at the electronic document library 26. The document database 12 may be a single database or may be a plurality of databases which are in communication with each other.
The document database 12 is in communication with the search module 14. The search module 14 searches the document database 12 in response to queries entered by a user computer 24. In one embodiment the search module 14 retrieves the documents which are most relevant to the user's request. An embodiment of a process for retrieving the most relevant documents will be described in more detail below in the description of
The user computer 24 may be any computer which is capable of being connected to the communication network 22. The user computer 24 may be the user's own personal computer or any other computer or terminal which the user may access to connect to the communication network 22. For example, the user computer 24 may be a computer which the user has access to at the user's workplace. In one embodiment, the user computer 24 is not a single computer, but changes as the user accesses different computers.
The user database 18 provides a central location for storing user information. In one embodiment, the user database 18 stores a user name and a password for each user authorized to access documents stored in the document database 12. In another embodiment, the user database 18 stores personal information regarding authorized users, such as name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, occupation, etc. In another embodiment, the user database 18 stores billing information for each user. For example, the user database 18 may store information indicating that the user's personal credit card account should be charged to keep the user's subscription current. Alternatively, the user database 18 may store information indicating that the user's employer should be charged to keep the user's subscription current. The user database 18 is in communication with a user verification module 16 which receives user information from the user computer 24 through the communication network 22 and the web site server 20. The user verification module 16 compares the user identification information received from the user computer 24 to the entries in the user database 18 and determines whether a user should be granted access to the document database 12.
In one embodiment, a user is allowed to search the document database 12 without being authorized by the user verification module 16. In this embodiment, the user is verified by the user verification module 16 upon requesting to view the contents of an electronic document. In another embodiment, the user is verified by the user verification module 16 before being able to search the document database 12. In yet another embodiment, the user is able to view only certain documents in the document database 12 without being verified by the user verification module 16.
In one embodiment, the electronic library system 10 includes a registration module 28. The registration module 28 enables users who are not currently included in the user database 18 to register for the service and to be added to the user database 18. In another embodiment, the user contacts the third party maintaining the electronic library system 10 in order to register for the service and be added to the user database 18. The registration process will be described in more detail below in the discussion of
In another embodiment, the electronic library system 10 includes electronic document conversion computers 30 which convert documents from hard copy form into electronic form. In one such embodiment, the electronic document conversion computers 30 convert documents which are in an electronic form used by publishers to print hard copy documents into a form for electronic publication. The electronic form of documents used by publishers may be files from layout programs such as PageMaker, QuarkExpress, FrameMaker, or any other publishing program. The process for converting books into a standard electronic form will be described in more detail below.
Referring to
The main menu 37 provides the user with a central page from which all the major functions of the system 10 can be reached. The main menu screen presents the user with the different functions which may be selected by pointing and clicking on an appropriate button or icon.
If the user selects the login option 41, the web site server 20 proceeds to step 52 and displays a user login page. The flowchart of
If the user name and associated password are valid, the user verification module 16 grants the user access to the full contents of the documents in the electronic document database 12 in step 70. In one embodiment, if the user name is valid, but the associated password is invalid, the user verification module 16 sends an error message to the user computer 24 through the web site server 20 and requests the user to login again. If the user name is not valid, the user verification module 16 denies the user access to the electronic document database 12 in step 72. In another embodiment, the user is granted access to search the document database 12, but may not view the full contents of the electronic documents. In another embodiment, if the user is denied access in step 72, the user is given an opportunity to obtain a subscription to the electronic document library service by registering with the electronic document library 26. In one embodiment, the user may set the user's preferences to automatic login in order to avoid entering a user name and password each time the user accesses the web site server 20. In this embodiment, the user verification module 16 still verifies the user name and password, each time the user logs into the web site server 20 in order to verify that the user's subscription is still valid.
Referring again to
After the user has entered the necessary information into the registration screen 74 and selected the OK button 96, the user computer 24 transmits the information to the web site server 20. The web site server 20 transfers the information to the registration module 28 which determines if the user should be granted a subscription. If the user is granted a subscription, the registration module 28 adds a user name and a password to the user database 18. In one embodiment, the registration module 28 uses the user name entered by the user in the user name fields 76, 78. In another embodiment the registration module 28 selects a user name for the user. In yet another embodiment, the registration module 28 uses the password entered by the user as a preferred password. In another embodiment, the registration module 28 selects a password to be associated with the user name. If the user is granted a registration, the registration module 28 contacts the user and informs the user of the user name and password to use when logging into the electronic document library 26. In one such embodiment, the registration module 28 sends an e-mail message to the user. The e-mail message contains the user name and password to be entered by the user when logging into the electronic document library 26. In another embodiment, the user is given the opportunity to change the user name and password.
Referring again to
If the user selects the search documents option 42, the web site server 20 proceeds to step 100 and displays a find books page screen.
Once the user selects one of the sub-topics 108, the search module 14 identifies the documents categorized under the selected sub-topic and the user is presented with a list of documents which are categorized under the selected sub-topic. For example, if the user selects the “Access” sub-topic 114, the user is presented with a list of documents in the form of the screen display 116 shown in
Referring again to
In another embodiment, the user is able to search for an electronic document in the document database 12 by entering key words which might occur in the text of the document. The user enters the key words into the key word field 122. Once the user has entered the key words, the user selects the “Search” button 124 or hits the “Return/Enter” key. The search module 14 then searches the document database 12 for documents which contain the key words. In one embodiment, the user is able to instruct the search module 14 to search for documents in the entire document database 12, in a particular category from the main topic list 104 or sub-topic list 108, in a results list from a previous search or in books present in the user's personal bookshelf.
In the example shown in
From the search results list, the user may select to view an electronic document. For example, the user may select to view the book “Mastering Java 2” by clicking on the underlined title. The web site server 20 then displays the book to the user. In one embodiment, the web site server 20 displays the entire content of the book to the user, including text, graphics, tables, code listings, etc. In another embodiment, the web site server 20 displays the contents of the book just as the user would see the contents if viewing the hard copy version. Continuing the example from above and referring to
Referring back to
In order to understand how this embodiment of a search is performed, it is important to understand how documents are stored in the document database 12. Knowledge of the typical structure of a type of document is used when documents are added to the document database 12. When the electronic documents are stored in the document database 12, the documents are broken down into a hierarchy of constituent elements. The constituent elements are linked together in a relational scheme so that the document database 12 can identify which documents a particular element is part of. An index is created for each document which identifies the constituent elements.
In one embodiment, the search module 14 assigns a relevancy ranking based on the number of hits and the quality of the hits (i.e. exact words in key word search). In another embodiment, the search module 14 assigns a relevancy ranking to a document according to how many times the document has been accessed. In another embodiment, the search module 14 assigns a relevancy ranking according to whether the user performing the search has accessed the document previously or has stored the document on the user's personal bookshelf.
In one embodiment, the search module 14 evaluates the search results before returning the results to the user. In one such embodiment, before returning the results to the user in step 162, the search module 14 performs the steps illustrated in the flowchart of
If the search module 14 determines the search results are sufficient and the search parameters do not need to be expanded, the search module 14 returns to step 154 of
In determining whether to implement fallback strategies, the search module 14 must balance precision and recall. Precision refers to the accuracy of the documents located. If specific key words are important, to be precise the search results must contain those key words. Recall refers to the scope of the documents located. For example, by searching for only specific key words, a user may inadvertently omit documents which are relevant. Often users are not able to formulate a search which will return the most relevant documents. A user may not think to enter certain key words. The search module 14 balances precision and recall.
In one embodiment, the search module 14 begins by searching for highly precise results, e.g., results containing the exact key words in the exact manner entered by the user. If adequate results are not returned, the search module 14 works toward high recall. The search module 14 simulates the type of searching performed by information librarians. The strategies for expanding the search results may include stemming the key words entered by the user, implementing “near” operators, and implementing “and” and “or” operators. If the user has entered more than one key word, the search module 14 implements “near” operators by searching for the key words within a certain distance within from each other rather than searching for a phrase containing the key words directly next to each other. To implement the “and” operator, the search module 14 looks for both key words being in the document rather than being directly next to each other. To implement the “or” operator, the search module 14 searches for documents containing at least one of the key words entered by the user. In different embodiments the search module 14 employs different strategies for expanding the search and employs the strategies in different orders. The purpose of expanding the search is to provide the user with the optimum results.
Once the search module 14 determines a strategy for expanding the search parameters, the search module 14 returns to step 154 of
In one embodiment, along with returning the search results, the search module 14 displays the actual search conducted to locate the search results. For example, if the user entered the key words “java jar files” and the search module 14 returned documents containing the words “java” or “jar” or “file”, the search module would inform the user that the search conducted was: java or jar or file.
In addition to searching for documents, a user may create a personal virtual “bookshelf” of documents. The bookshelf contains documents that the user accesses frequently or desires to be able to access without searching the document database 12. Referring again to
When the user selects the personal bookshelf option 43 from the main menu, the web site server 20 displays a list of the documents in the user's personal bookshelf and a list of the bookmarks created by the user (step 176 in
As mentioned above, in one embodiment, the electronic document library system 10 includes electronic document conversion computers 30 for creating digital versions of existing paper-based books which are aggregated, categorized and added to the document database 12. Many hard copy book publishers used different desktop publishing software programs to produce books. Examples of different programs include PageMaker, QuarkExpress, FrameMaker and others. These publishing programs enable books to be published as hard copy books by printing presses. These files are not in a form capable of electronically publishing the documents. The electronic document conversion computers 30 execute an algorithm which converts files from different desktop publishing programs into a standard electronic format.
Attachment 1 is a user guide which describes the process for creating an electronic book from a file obtained from a publisher. The user guide describes the steps a user, such as a person who is converting an electronic book file from a publisher's press-ready or pre-publication digital data format to a searchable electronic library format of the present invention, performs, using an embodiment of a document conversion tool to create an electronic book.
Thus it will be seen that the present invention provides a method and system for publishing a plurality of books for user access to information. The system includes selecting a plurality of books, converting each book from a layout or publication digital data 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 publishing database, e.g., arranged as an xml database indexed by book structure such that a user may remotely, e.g., over the internet or other network, access the database, search desired text data, 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. Advantageously, a search engine may rank 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, identification of search data in a prior search by the user or degree of match of data identified in the search.
The search engine may be a commercially available search engine together with an interface that operates, when provided a search query by a user, to search for an exact match and to score hits for relevance, and in the event an exact match is not found, operate to expand the query and return scored search results located by the search engine together with an indication of the expanded search such that the user may ascertain a degree of likely relevance of returned text or data information. The relational database may include hyperlinks to related section heading data, 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, so 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 employ a graded or adaptive search strategy, and may expand a search if all hits have low ranking, and suppress hits of low ranking when the search produces hits of high ranking. In further embodiments, the search engine may be adapted to inspect the content of tables, formulae and drawings of the converted book files to further enhance utility of the system as a technical book library. This may be done, for example, by parsing data structures in appearing in a programming language, such as C that define the tables, formulae or drawings.
Attachment 2 is an example of a chapter of a book that has been converted to electronic form using the program described in the user guide of Attachment 1. Attachment 2 shows examples of the different tags applied by the program to identify different elements of the book.
One skilled in the art will appreciate further features and advantages of the invention based on the above-described embodiments. Accordingly, the invention is not to be limited by what has been particularly shown and described. All publications and references cited herein are expressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Claims
1-25. (canceled)
26. A method of publishing a plurality of books for user searching and access over a computer network, the method comprising:
- selecting a plurality of books, each book being in a layout form for hardcopy publication and not an electronic publishing format;
- automatically detecting features of the books, wherein detecting features includes extracting text from the book and determining hierarchical features of the books;
- tagging at least some of the text extracted from the books with determined hierarchical features relating to that text;
- storing on a computer network the tagged text; and
- providing a search engine to search over the computer network the tagged text, the search engine scoring search results at least in part based upon the hierarchical features with which the text is tagged.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the hierarchical features of the books includes chapters.
28. The method of claim 27, wherein the hierarchical features of the books further includes sections and sub-sections.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the hierarchical features of the books further includes titles of the chapters, sections and sub-sections.
30. The method of claim 27, wherein the hierarchical features of the books includes a plurality of lowest level elements, and the search engine searches the lowest level elements for one or more search terms entered by a user to calculate a relevancy ranking for each of the lowest level elements determined to be relevant by the search engine.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein the relevancy rankings for lowest level elements are combined into a relevancy ranking for a next highest level element.
32. The method of claim 26, further comprising presenting search results from the search engine to a user over the network.
33. The method of claim 32, further comprising displaying to a user a portion of a book related to a search result that is selected by the user.
34. The method of claim 26, wherein a computer tool is applied to automatically detect the features of the books.
35. The method of claim 34, wherein the tool further detects characteristic features of a book including format of section headings, layout of text, drawings and captions and organizational features of the book.
36. The method of claim 33, wherein the books are associated with a plurality of different publishers and further comprising monitoring access by users to books and determining royalties owed to the publishers associated with books that have been displayed to users.
37. A publishing system operative on a plurality of books, each book being in a layout form for hardcopy publication and not an electronic publishing format, wherein the system comprises:
- a document conversion processor for converting the books in a layout form for hardcopy publication into an electronic publishing format;
- a detecting processor for automatically detecting hierarchical features of the books;
- an extracting processor for extracting text or data information of the books and for tagging the extracted text or data information of the books with the hierarchical features detected by the detecting processor;
- a memory for storing the tagged text or data information from the means for extracting in a publishing database, the memory comprising a searchable database of said plurality of books configured for a user to remotely access the database over a network or internet; and
- a search engine effective to search the memory for specified search data, and return an image of a portion of the book with the desired data;
- wherein the search engine ranks search results based on their position in the hierarchy to determine their degree of relevance of text or data information located by the search engine.
38. The publishing system of claim 37, wherein the memory includes a publishing database having text or data information organized and related as chapter, section, subsection or other hierarchy, and the search engine scores search results based upon at least one factor selected from the set of factors including position of located search data in the hierarchy.
39. The publishing system of claim 37, wherein the memory includes a publishing database having hyperlinks to related section heading data, such that a user accessing a page of a book may immediately view related data or context of a page.
40. The publishing system of claim 37, wherein the memory includes a publishing database indexed by logical subunits of the books 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.
41. The publishing system of claim 37, wherein the hierarchical features of the books includes chapters.
42. The publishing system of claim 41, wherein the hierarchical features of the books further includes sections and sub-sections.
43. The publishing system of claim 42, wherein the hierarchical features of the books further includes titles of the chapters, sections and sub-sections.
44. The publishing system of claim 41, wherein the hierarchical features of the books includes a plurality of lowest level elements, and the search engine searches the lowest level elements for one or more search terms entered by a user to calculate a relevancy ranking for each of the lowest level elements determined to be relevant by the search engine.
45. The publishing system of claim 44, wherein the relevancy rankings for lowest level elements are combined into a relevancy ranking for a next highest level element.
46. The publishing system of claim 37, further comprising a display for presenting search results from the search engine to a user over the network.
47. The publishing system of claim 46, wherein the display displays to a user a portion of a book related to a search result that is selected by the user.
48. The publishing system of claim 37, wherein the detecting processor further detects characteristic features of a book including format of section headings, layout of text, drawings and captions and organizational features of the book.
49. The method of claim 37, further comprising a monitor and wherein the books are associated with a plurality of different publishers and monitor monitors access by users to books and determining royalties owed to the publishers associated with books that have been displayed to users.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 17, 2007
Publication Date: Mar 13, 2008
Applicant: Books24x7.com, Inc. (Norwood, MA)
Inventors: Douglas Jenkins (Groveland, MA), Geoff Chappell (Windsor, VT), John Sidlo (Brookline, MA), Bill Roberts (Medway, MA), Steven Smith (Lowell, MA), Richard LaFauci (New York, NY)
Application Number: 11/873,681
International Classification: G06F 17/30 (20060101);