Today's digital libraries (DLs) archive vast amounts of information in the form of text, videos, images, data measurements, etc. User access to DL content can rely on similarity between metadata elements, or similarity between the data itself (content-based similarity). We consider the problem of exploratory search in large DLs of time-oriented data. We propose a novel approach for overview-first exploration of data collections based on user-selected metadata properties. In a 2D layout representing entities of the selected property are laid out based on their similarity with respect to the underlying data content. The display is enhanced by compact summarizations of underlying data elements, and forms the basis for exploratory navigation of users in the data space. The approach is proposed as an interface for visual exploration, leading the user to discover interesting relationships between data items relying on content-based similarity between data items and their respective metadata labels. We apply the method on real data sets from the earth observation community, showing its applicability and usefulness.

The dataset contains 269 links (childs) to any of the BSRN datasets. Any user who accepts the BSRN data release guidelines (http://bsrn.awi.de/data/conditions-of-data-release) may ask Gert König-Langlo (mailto:Gert.Koenig-Langlo@awi.de) to obtain an account to download these datasets.