ZyLAB to adopt XML for Data Storage

Bagshot, February 10th, 2003 - ZyLAB, developer of document imaging and full-text retrieval software, has fully adopted XML as the data format to store scanned and electronic documents. More and more libraries, government organizations, commercial organizations, and software publishers such as Microsoft follow the open XML standards to store and exchange information. 

Some popular recent applications for XML are the storage of historical archives, military data exchange, electronic data supply from law enforcement agencies to courts, and corporate filing and record management.

ZyLAB's ZyIMAGE is now able to support these applications by storing all scanned files, as well as currently available electronic files, in an open standard XML database.

Digital Sustainability

The increased popularity of digital archiving, though, has brought with it a new area of concern, known as digital sustainability. The focus of this issue is whether or not digital information that is archived today can still be accessed 10, 20, or even 100 years from now. At some point in the future, all current software will no longer be supported because they will not be used anymore or will have been completely forgotten. Over the last few years, libraries, governments, and commercial organizations worldwide have recognized digital sustainability as a large problem that will have to be dealt with.

XML and TIFF as Open Data Standard

One of the most promising solutions to this problem is the use of XML to represent document structure and meta-information in combination with either a Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) to store (raster) images of scanned pages or a hyperlink to an electronic file such as MS Word, PDF, JPEG, MPEG, and so on. Furthermore, XML and TIFFs have open well-defined standards for which standard source code libraries are freely available on the Internet.

XML Databases

XML proves itself to be very useful because it allows users to handle documents as separate files while also treating the information in the document as if it is stored in a database record. This method of storing information is much more efficient then storing unstructured data such as large text files, audio, video and other information in traditional relations relational database systems. 

In addition, relational database records are traditionally difficult to transfer between different systems unless a conversion is performed. Records stored in XML do not need to be converted, and ZyIMAGE is an excellent tool to disclose the unstructured data stored in these XML records.

For more information, request our latest white paper on this subject, XML4TIFF: An XML schema for storing multi-page image documents by Dr. Hans Henseler, CTO ZyLAB Technologies BV. Or, you can download this document from our web site: www.zylab.co.uk: 


About ZyLAB
ZyLAB is a fast growing and profitable company. In 1983, ZyLAB was the first company to deliver a full-featured PC-based full-text retrieval software package called ZyINDEX. ZyINDEX was particularly popular for searching large collections of electronic file collections in PC environments. As of 1991, ZyLAB focussed all of its development and marketing efforts on ZyIMAGE, aimed at delivering the best search engine available for large paper collections. As a result, ZyLAB now has a full solution to archive, search, find, organise, share and reproduce all paper and electronic office documents with unparalleled ease of use. Worldwide, ZyLAB has sold over 600,000 licenses and has active operational installations in more than 5,000 sites. ZyLAB has several offices in Europe, the USA and Asia. All software is developed in the Netherlands. More information can be found on www.zylab.co.uk.