Implementation and Evaluation of a Multilingual Search Pilot in the Europeana Digital Library

Mónica Marrero*, Antoine Isaac

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book / Report / Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Europeana, a digital library that aggregates content from libraries, archives and museums from all around Europe, offers search functionality using the metadata of more than 62 million objects. However, in most cases, this data is only available in one language, while users come from countries with different languages. Europeana’s strategy for the improvement of multilingual experiences includes the design and implementation of a multilingual information retrieval system based on the translation of queries and metadata to English. As a first development in this context, we have implemented a pilot applying query translation to English for the Spanish version of the website in order to surface results that have English metadata associated with them. We conducted an evaluation to assess the performance of this pilot and identify issues. The good performance rates observed allowed us to take the pilot to production, and the issues identified led to a list of specific actions, which should be addressed to the extent possible before the application of a wider multilingual information retrieval system.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLinking Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries
Subtitle of host publication26th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, TPDL 2022, Padua, Italy, September 20–23, 2022, Proceedings
EditorsGianmaria Silvello, Oscar Corcho, Paolo Manghi, Giorgio Maria Di Nunzio, Koraljka Golub, Nicola Ferro, Antonella Poggi
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages93-106
Number of pages14
ISBN (Electronic)9783031168024
ISBN (Print)9783031168017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Event26th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, TPDL 2022 - Padua, Italy
Duration: 20 Sept 202223 Sept 2022

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume13541 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference26th International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries, TPDL 2022
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityPadua
Period20/09/2223/09/22

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

  • Cultural Heritage
  • Information retrieval
  • Multilinguality

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Implementation and Evaluation of a Multilingual Search Pilot in the Europeana Digital Library'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this