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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.COSIT.2026.3

Qualitative Spatial Representation for Material Documents

Authors: Mark Bell and John G. Stell

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 393, 17th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2026)

Abstract

This paper proposes the use of Qualitative Spatial Representation (QSR) to model the complex relationships of paper documents and books, both in their physical and digital forms. We begin with motivating examples from The National Archives' holdings, and literature, to describe the myriad ways something as simple as text on paper can be manifested, and introduce appropriate terminology. The primary focus is on the challenges of working with documents comprised of multiple pages, and understanding the relationships between the pages themselves, text items which span more than one page. We end by presenting case studies using Allen Intervals to represent relationships between physical documents, their digitised representations, and the text on the page.

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Mark Bell and John G. Stell. Qualitative Spatial Representation for Material Documents. In 17th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 393, pp. 3:1-3:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bell_et_al:LIPIcs.COSIT.2026.3,
  author =	{Bell, Mark and Stell, John G.},
  title =	{{Qualitative Spatial Representation for Material Documents}},
  booktitle =	{17th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2026)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-438-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{393},
  editor =	{Timpf, Sabine and Filomena, Gabriele and Kapaj, Armand and Zhu, Rui and Giudice, Nicholas A. and Manley, Ed},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.COSIT.2026.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-275474},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.COSIT.2026.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Qualitative spatial representation, QSR, spatial text, document understanding, information extraction, Allen interval relations, archives}
}

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Qualitative Spatial Representation for Material Documents

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