Probably you heard by now, but if you didn’t – here is the big news: I have published a second book on Semantic Digital Libraries: Improving Usability of Information Discovery with Semantic and Social Services.

Compared to the previous one, it is not a compilation of articles contributed by myself and my colleagues; this book is based on my thesis. The book covers most important aspects of what Semantic Digital Libraries are and what is that they can offer. I present a very thorough review of literature describing various advanced digital library projects and components. Based on the identified requirements I propose architecture, data model and classification of ontologies for semantic digital libraries. I describe two example information retrieval and knowledge management techniques, which utilize semantic web and social networking technologies. Finally, I briefly describe the JeromeDL system and provide very detailed and thorough analyses of evaluation comparing usability of end-user services offered by a semantic digital library with those offered by a classic digital library.

The book is available for purchase at lulu.com.

Since I understand that not everyone could afford buying a complete, hardcover version, I have prepared an array of different versions (see below) of this book, ranging from Hardcover through Paperback through E-Book. There is also a lite version of this book, which does not contain the attachments.

	Hardcover	Paperback	E-Book
Full version	ISBN: 978-1-4452-7770-7 (€45)	ISBN: 978-1-4452-8243-5 (€25)	PDF (€7.5)
Lite version*	ISBN: 978-1-4452-8864-2 (€35)	Lite Paperback version (€15)	ePUB** (€10)

* Lite version does not contain attachments
** Open standard format, compatible with, e.g., iPad

I hope your will find this book a good read and very helpful for your studies and work.

(Pssst, come and visit our Facebook group tomorrow: you will learn how to get the book cheaper over the next couple of days)

January was madness: I was hoping for this year to be more relaxed after all the rush with thesis and the company in 2009. But it did not start like one; guess I should blame my workholic attitude. Maybe I should do what my supervisor once did: hang a note (so I can see it) [...]

In case you were wondering what was my PhD thesis about – here is are some tips (thanks to Woordle):

That was a quick one. I hardly say “Semantic” and we are first month down the road with daily posts at our Semantic School blog.
We have published 21 articles so far. We went from reviewing Semantic Layer Cake to introducing OWL yesterday.
It is to early to tell, but we already heard voices of appreciation. Hopefully, [...]

Just had a very interesting conversation on how my research could help knowledge workers, e.g., people responsible for producing documentation in large corporations.
I have to say, I am glad that whatever I wrote here helped someone make this association with their work to my research. To be frank, when I invented notitio.us 2 years ago, [...]

Few days ago I found enough time to write about the last stages of my PhD process, namely my viva voce and what followed afterwards.
A friend of mine, Lukasz, told me that he still had the videos he recorded during my presentation. He was so kind to publish them on Vimeo.
Here they are:

Sebastian’s PhD Deffence [...]

Last week I have travelled to Trento, Italy.

I was invited by the organizers of the International Conference for the Semantic Web and Digital Libraries (ICSD’09) to give a full-day tutorial on Semantic Digital Libraries.
The key goal of this conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners working on solutions that span together these two worlds: [...]

Few months ago (in May) I had to face the most important point on my way to PhD – the viva voce (i.e., “thesis defense”).
I could not get myself around posting about that, mostly due to many activities related to our startup and to the final procedures related to the thesis itself.
Now, as my PhD [...]

Jak co roku zwracam się do was z prośba o głosowanie na tematy zgłoszone przeze mnie do Jesiennych Spotkań PTI.

The day has come to wrap up the research I have been doing for the last couple of years. After closing the write up and submitting my thesis in February this year, my PhD defense is approaching very soon.
Here is some information about it. If you are around Galway next Monday – you are [...]