In this paper we present the digital library assistant (DiLiA). The system aims at augmenting the search in digital libraries in several dimensions. In the project advanced information visualisation methods are developed for user controlled interactive search. The interaction model has been designed in a way that it is transparent to the user and easy to use. In addition, information extraction (IE) methods have been developed in DiLiA to make the content more easily accessible, this includes the identification and extraction of technical terms (TTs)