1. A method for semantically zooming information for display on a display device of a computer system comprising the steps of: maintaining 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; determining bounds of a display area; determining 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 determining a semantic zoom display of the one or more citations, wherein the determining the semantic zoom display comprises: 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 and combining the selected different length representations as the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations; and presenting the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations for the textual document in the display area.
1. A method for semantically zooming information for display on a display device of a computer system comprising the steps of: maintaining 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; determining bounds of a display area; determining 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 determining a semantic zoom display of the one or more citations, wherein the determining the semantic zoom display comprises: 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 and combining the selected different length representations as the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations; and presenting the semantic zoom display of the one or more citations for the textual document in the display area. 15. The method of claim 1 , in which the combination of the selected different length representations is formed based on user interest.