Search of Mathematical Contents: Issues and Methods

摘要

Efforts are underway worldwide to create Web-accessible mathematical and scientific digital libraries. To benefit fully from such resources, users should be able to search not only for text, but also for equations and other math constructs. This paper will identify major issues that must be addressed in building math search systems, and then present techniques for developing a math search system on top of text search systems. Fundamental to this approach is a process that textualizes, serializes, scopes, and normalizes math expressions in contents and in queries. The performance of the approach is evaluated using a math search system that the author has developed.