A spatial user interface to the astronomical literature

We recall the properties of the Kohonen self- organizing feature map (SOM or SOFM), and explain how such maps can be used for information retrieval. We present an application to a bibliographic database. Our neural net can contain more than one level when neces- sary, which allows users to modify its spatial conguration. It is available for interactive use on the World-Wide Web (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/A+A/map.pl). The interface that we have designed for browsing in the documentary database will be explained in detail.