Library portals: toward the semantic Web

The semantic Web is an exciting prospect, but not yet a reality, for researchers who are faced with an ever‐increasing range of material – some freely available and some accessible to them only by virtue of their affiliation. This paper introduces the concept of the semantic Web and indicates how, if realized, the semantic Web could be of great benefit to researchers. Some parallel activities now under way are aimed at providing practical solutions to scholars today through the use of agent technology built into library portals; the paper explains, in particular, how one system, MetaLib – the library portal solution from Ex Libris – addresses these issues.