Avanti Library Systems will soon release Nova, a semantic mapping system that can be used in a variety of contexts. It is initially being developed to be used as an online catalog. However, the Nova software is very general and can also be used to implement topic maps, content management systems, complex data structures such as MARC records, or any application that needs to dynamically map and query relationships among sets of objects.

Nova can be used in several ways. It has a scripting language used to manipulate and query semantic maps. It will also have native client/server capabilities, and provides a Java API for integration with other applications. At its core is a data structure that stores a semantic map. Nova is ultimately a new way of looking at semantic data.

Software that has the basic capabilities along with documentation and the API will be made available at www.avantilibrarysystems.com by late June or early July 2010.  More details to follow.

Peter Schlumpf
http://www.avantilibrarysystems.com
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