title: Foundations of reusable and interoperable facet models using category theory.
abstract: Faceted browsing has become ubiquitous with modern digital libraries and online search engines, yet the process is still difficult to abstractly model in a manner that supports the development of interoperable and reusable interfaces. We propose category theory as a theoretical foundation for faceted browsing and demonstrate how the interactive process can be mathematically abstracted. Existing efforts in facet modeling are based upon set theory, formal concept analysis, and light-weight ontologies, but in many regards, they are implementations of faceted browsing rather than a specification of the basic, underlying structures and interactions. We will demonstrate that category theory allows us to specify faceted objects and study the relationships and interactions within a faceted browsing system. Resulting implementations can then be constructed through a category-theoretic lens using these models, allowing abstract comparison and communication that naturally support interoperability and reuse.
authors.affiliation: Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Harris
keywords: Data models; Information architecture; Interactive systems; Reusability