ABSTRACT
As mentioned in Chapter 2, loosely related to Web data management are digital libraries and Internet database management. Digital libraries are essentially digitized information distributed across several sites. The goal is for users to access this information in a transparent manner. The information could contain multimedia data such as voice, text, video, and images. The information could also be stored in structured databases such as relational and object-oriented databases. I also discuss digital libraries in Chapter 2. Sometimes, the terms
digital libraries, Web databases,
and
Internet databases
are used interchangeably. The explosion of the users on the Internet and the increasing number of World
Wide Web (WWW) servers are rapidly advancing Web data management. Users can access the various information sources across the Internet. There is no single technology for Web data management. It is a combination of many technologies including heterogeneous database management, query management, intelligent agents and mediators, and data mining. For example, the heterogeneous information sources have to be integrated so that users access the servers in a transparent and timely manner. Security and privacy are becoming major concerns for Web data management, as are other issues such as copyright protection and ownership of the data. Policies and procedures have to be set up to address these issues.
