27. The system of claim 16 , in which the processor stores the combination of the selected different length representations in a storage structure comprising records, wherein each record is associated with a level and differs from prior records and subsequent records by the associated levels.
16. A system for semantically zooming information for display comprising: a database that maintains citations, which each citation semantically represents a textual document and each citation comprises a plurality of sections, wherein each section comprises data associated with characteristic information, the characteristic information comprises at least one of a role and data type in the citation associated with that section; a memory; and a processor that determines bounds of a display area; different length representations of the data for each section in one or more of the citations based on the characteristic information, wherein the different length representations reflect an application of various reduction transformations to the plurality of sections and a semantic zoom display of the one or more citations, wherein the semantic zoom display is determined by selecting one of the different length representations for each of the plurality of sections in the one or more citations based on the bounds of the display area, by combining the selected different length representations as the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations, and by presenting the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations for the textual document in the display area.