The application of intelligent agents in libraries: a survey

Purpose - The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive literature review on the utilisation of intelligent agent technology in the library environment. Design/methodology/approach - Research papers since 1990 on the use of various intelligent agent technologies in libraries are divided into two main application areas: digital library (DL), including agent-based DL projects, multi-agent architecture for DLs, intelligent agents for distributed heterogeneous information retrieval and agent support to information search process in DLs; and services in traditional libraries, including user interface for library information systems, automatic reference services and multi-agent architecture for library services. For each paper on the topic, its new ideas or models, referred work, analyses, experiments, findings and conclusions are addressed. Findings - The majority of the literature covers DLs and there have been fewer studies about services in traditional libraries. A variety of architecture, framework and models integrating agent technology in library systems or services are proposed, but only a few have been implemented in the practical environment. The application of agent technology is still at the research and experimentation stage. Agent technology has great potential in many areas in the library context; however it presents challenges to libraries that want to be involved in its adoption. Practical implications - The survey has practical implications for libraries, librarians and computer professionals in developing projects that employ intelligent agent technology to meet end-users\u27 expectations as well as to improve information services within limited resources in library settings. Originality/value - The paper provides a comprehensive survey on the development and research of intelligent agents in libraries in literature

LitMiner: integration of library services within a bio-informatics application

BACKGROUND: This paper examines how the adoption of a subject-specific library service has changed the way in which its users interact with a digital library. The LitMiner text-analysis application was developed to enable biologists to explore gene relationships in the published literature. The application features a suite of interfaces that enable users to search PubMed as well as local databases, to view document abstracts, to filter terms, to select gene name aliases, and to visualize the co-occurrences of genes in the literature. At each of these stages, LitMiner offers the functionality of a digital library. Documents that are accessible online are identified by an icon. Users can also order documents from their institution's library collection from within the application. In so doing, LitMiner aims to integrate digital library services into the research process of its users. METHODS: Case study RESULTS: This integration of digital library services into the research process of biologists results in increased access to the published literature. CONCLUSION: In order to make better use of their collections, digital libraries should customize their services to suit the research needs of their patrons

Interactive Information Retrieval with Structured Documents

In recent years there has been a growing realisation in the IR community that the interaction of searchers with information is an indispensable component of the IR process. As a result, issues relating to interactive IR have been extensively investigated in the last decade. This research has been performed in the context of unstructured documents or in the context of the loosely-defined structure encountered in web pages. XML documents, on the other hand, define a different context, by offering the possibility of navigating within the structure of a single document, or of following links to other documents. Relatively little work has been carried out to study user interaction with IR systems that make use of the additional features offered by XML documents. As part of the INEX initiative for the evaluation of XML retrieval, the INEX interactive track has focused on interactive XML retrieval since 2004. Here user friendly exposition to various features of XML documents is provided and some new features are designed and implemented to enable searchers to have access to their desired information in an efficient manner. In this study interaction entails three levels: query formulation, inspecting result list, and examining the detail. For query formulation, suggesting related terms is a conventional method to assist searchers. Here we investigate the related terms derived from two different co-occurrence units: elements and documents. In addition, contextual aspect is added to facilitate the searchers for appropriate selection of terms. Results showed the usefulness of suggesting related terms and some what acceptance of the contextual related tool. For inspecting the result list, classic document retrieval systems such as web search engines retrieve whole documents, and leave it to the searchers to collect their required information from possibly a lengthy text. In contrast, element retrieval aims at a focused view of information by pointing to the optimal access points of the document. A number of strategies have been investigated for presenting result lists. For examining the detail of a document, traditionally the complete document is presented to a searcher and here again the searcher has to put in effort to reach its required information. We investigated the use of additional support such as a table of contents along with document detail. In addition, we also investigated graphical representations of documents depicting its structure and granularity of retrieved elements along with their estimated relevance. Here the table of contents was found to be a very useful features for examining details. In order to conduct the analysis of searcher's interaction, a visualisation technique based on Tree Map was developed. It depicts the search interaction with element retrieval system. A number of browsing strategies has been identified with the help of this tool. The value of element retrieval for searchers and comparison between two focused approaches such as element and passage retrieval system was also evaluated. The study suggests that searchers find elements useful for their tasks and they locate a lot of the relevant information in specific elements rather than full documents. Sections, in particular, appear to be helpful. In order to provide user-specific support, the system needs feedback from searchers, who in turn, are very reluctant to give this information explicitly. Therefore, we investigated to what extent the different features can be used as relevance predictors. Of the five features regarded, primarily the reading time is a useful relevance predictor. Overall, relevance predictors for structured documents seem to be much weaker than for the case of atomic documents

Daffodil: Strategic Support during the Information Search Process in Digital Libraries

Sowohl die rechnergestützte Informationssuche in einer realen Bibliothek als auch die in einer digitalen Bibliothek stellen heute immer noch ein zeitaufwändiges und damit teures Unterfangen dar. Als wesentliche Gründe können drei Problembereiche identifiziert werden. Zum Ersten existieren zahlreiche Zugangspunkte mit jeweils unterschiedlichen Formularen, Anfragesprachen und unterschiedlicher inhaltlicher Qualität. Zum Zweiten fehlt eine dringend benötigte anbieterübergreifende Integration der Informationen und Dienste. Zum Dritten schließlich wird der Benutzer durch die unbefriedigende Funktionalität nicht ausreichend in seinem Informationssuchprozess unterstützt. Alle diese Punkte führen letztendlich zu langwierigen und damit teuren Suchprozessen. Diese Dissertation stellt sich der Aufgabe, den oben genannten Problembereichen in geeigneter Weise zu begegnen und eine adäquate Lösung zu erarbeiten. Dazu erhält der Benutzer durch "strategische Unterstützung" in Form von verschiedenen integrierten Diensten von einem aktiven System eine Hilfestellung, um so sein Informationsbedürfnis effektiv und effizient befriedigen zu können. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit, die durch eine ausführliche Evaluation belegt worden sind, bieten sowohl theoretische als auch praktische Lösungen zur Entwicklung und zur Nutzung von digitalen Bibliotheken: * Der theoretische Teil zeigt ein Modell für verteilte Bibliotheksdienste auf, strukturiert diese und stellt sie in einen Gesamtzusammenhang. Dadurch wird die Modellierung neuer Dienste erleichtert und ein positiver Nutzen kann schon im Vorfeld diskutiert werden. * Der praktische Teil basiert auf dem entwickelten Modell und ermöglicht * den Benutzern, effektiv und effizient einer umfassenden Literatursuche nachzugehen und diese auch nachhaltig zu verwalten. * den Entwicklern von digitalen Bibliotheken durch Zugriff auf eine Vielzahl von Basisdiensten darüber hinausgehende Dienste zu entwickeln. Insgesamt kann das DAFFODIL-System als Basisarchitektur für die Entwicklung und Evaluation von digitalen Bibliotheken verwendet werden und trägt somit zur wissenschaftlichen Forschung in diesem Bereich bei

A Nine Month Report on Progress Towards a Framework for Evaluating Advanced Search Interfaces considering Information Retrieval and Human Computer Interaction

This is a nine month progress report detailing my research into supporting users in their search for information, where the questions, results or even thei

Support in Finding and Implementing Search Strategies in Digital Libraries

Endbenutzern von modernen Informationssystemen fehlt es oft an strategischem oder prozeduralem Suchwissen. Diese fehlende Suchexpertise führt dazu, dass Benutzer auf ineffiziente und ineffektive Suchtaktiken und Strategien zurückgreifen. Ausgehend von dieser Problemstellung untersucht die Arbeit, wie ein Suchsystem unerfahrene Benutzer bei der Bildung und Durchführung von Suchstrategien für ihr Informationsproblem unterstützen kann. Basierend auf der parametrisierten Beschreibung von Suchsituationen und unter Einsatz bekannter Taktiken, die auf das Suchsystem Daffodil bezogen wurden, wird ein Vorschlagssystem für Suchtaktiken, -strategeme und Suchstrategien beschrieben. Es benutzt die Technik des fallbasierten Schließens, um aus den erfolgreichen Aktionen anderer Benutzer ein angemessenes Vorgehen für die aktuelle Situation des Suchenden vorzuschlagen. Daneben werden auch Vorschläge basierend auf den Suchergebnissen und auf Suchpfaden früherer Benutzer implementiert und untersucht, sowie die Kombination der verschiedenen Vorgehensweisen diskutiert. Zusätzlich zur Umsetzung für Daffodil erfolgte eine zweite Umsetzung für die Websuche mit Google als Erweiterung für den Browser Firefox. In einer zweiteiligen Evaluation des Vorschlagssystems wurden zunächst das grundsätzliche Konzept und die Benutzerschnittstelle mit positivem Ergebnis untersucht. Ein Folgeexperiment konnte die folgenden Hypothesen bestätigen: * Suchende finden mit Unterstützung mehr relevante Dokumente. * Unterstützte Suchende setzen häufiger fortgeschrittene Taktiken oder Werkzeuge ein. * Situativ angepasste Vorschläge helfen auch in späteren Suchen ohne Unterstützung. Im Rahmen des erprobten Lehrkonzeptes des software-realisierten Scaffolding wird das Vorschlagssystem in den größeren Zusammenhang einer geführten Suchunterstützung eingebettet. Anhand einer beispielhaften Aufgabe zeigt die Arbeit eine prototypische Umsetzung des Scaffoldings für die Suche in Daffodil. Dabei wird einem unerfahrenden Suchenden aufgezeigt, wie sich eine Suchaufgabe in Teilprobleme gliedern lässt und wie man die Werkzeuge des Systems zur Planung und Organisation der Suche einsetzen kann. Darüber hinaus wird ein Strategieframework zur Beschreibung und automatischen Umsetzung einfacher Suchstrategeme vorgestellt und in den Scaffolding-Prototypen integriert. Mit Hilfe des modularen Strategiesystems wurde ein Werkzeug implementiert, das eine existierende Dokumentenliste um zu diesen Dokumenten ähnliche ergänzt. Allen vorgestellten Methoden ist gemein, dass mit ihnen ein DL-System unerfahrene Benutzer bei der Bildung und bei der Durchführung einer Suchstrategie unterstützen kann. Die implementierten Werkzeuge und Frameworks erlauben darüber hinaus die Untersuchung weiterer Unterstützungsszenarien.End users of modern information systems often lack the necessary strategic or procedural search knowledge. This missing search expertise leads to the use of ineffectiv or inefficient search tactics and strategies. Based on this problem, this thesis examines different methods to support inexperienced users of a search system in building and executing search strategies for their information problem. Based on the parametrised description of search situations and using well-known tactics, which have been implemented for Daffodil, a recommendation or suggestion system for search tactics, stratagems and strategies is described. It uses the technique of case-based reasoning to suggest next steps for the user based on successful actions of previous users. In addition suggestions based on common search results and search paths have been implemented and are discussed in this thesis. A second implementation of the concept was done for web searching using the Google search engine and the Firefox web browser. A first evaluation of the suggester validated the general concept and the user interface. In a follow-up experiment the following hypotheses were confirmed: * Supported searchers find more relevant documents. * Supported searchers use more advanced tactics and tools. * Situational suggestions lead to better performance in future searches without support. Using the contept of software-realised scaffolding the suggestion system was included in the larger context of guided search support. A prototypical implementation of scaffolding for searching with Daffodil is described. Guided searching can help inexperienced users to divide their search problem in smaller sub tasks and use the tools of the search system to plan and organise their search. A strategy framework for automatically executing simple search strategems has also been integrated into the scaffolding prototype. Using the modular strategies a tool was developed to find additional similar documents for a given list of documents. All the methods described have in common that they can aid inexperienced searchers in building and executing search strategies. The implemented tools and frameworks also allow further research on additional support scenarios

Cultural Heritage on line

The 2nd International Conference "Cultural Heritage online – Empowering users: an active role for user communities" was held in Florence on 15-16 December 2009. It was organised by the Fondazione Rinascimento Digitale, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and the Library of Congress, through the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program - NDIIP partners. The conference topics were related to digital libraries, digital preservation and the changing paradigms, focussing on user needs and expectations, analysing how to involve users and the cultural heritage community in creating and sharing digital resources. The sessions investigated also new organisational issues and roles, and cultural and economic limits from an international perspective

A Probabilistic Framework for Information Modelling and Retrieval Based on User Annotations on Digital Objects

Annotations are a means to make critical remarks, to explain and comment things, to add notes and give opinions, and to relate objects. Nowadays, they can be found in digital libraries and collaboratories, for example as a building block for scientific discussion on the one hand or as private notes on the other. We further find them in product reviews, scientific databases and many "Web 2.0" applications; even well-established concepts like emails can be regarded as annotations in a certain sense. Digital annotations can be (textual) comments, markings (i.e. highlighted parts) and references to other documents or document parts. Since annotations convey information which is potentially important to satisfy a user's information need, this thesis tries to answer the question of how to exploit annotations for information retrieval. It gives a first answer to the question if retrieval effectiveness can be improved with annotations. A survey of the "annotation universe" reveals some facets of annotations; for example, they can be content level annotations (extending the content of the annotation object) or meta level ones (saying something about the annotated object). Besides the annotations themselves, other objects created during the process of annotation can be interesting for retrieval, these being the annotated fragments. These objects are integrated into an object-oriented model comprising digital objects such as structured documents and annotations as well as fragments. In this model, the different relationships among the various objects are reflected. From this model, the basic data structure for annotation-based retrieval, the structured annotation hypertext, is derived. In order to thoroughly exploit the information contained in structured annotation hypertexts, a probabilistic, object-oriented logical framework called POLAR is introduced. In POLAR, structured annotation hypertexts can be modelled by means of probabilistic propositions and four-valued logics. POLAR allows for specifying several relationships among annotations and annotated (sub)parts or fragments. Queries can be posed to extract the knowledge contained in structured annotation hypertexts. POLAR supports annotation-based retrieval, i.e. document and discussion search, by applying an augmentation strategy (knowledge augmentation, propagating propositions from subcontexts like annotations, or relevance augmentation, where retrieval status values are propagated) in conjunction with probabilistic inference, where P(d -> q), the probability that a document d implies a query q, is estimated. POLAR's semantics is based on possible worlds and accessibility relations. It is implemented on top of four-valued probabilistic Datalog. POLAR's core retrieval functionality, knowledge augmentation with probabilistic inference, is evaluated for discussion and document search. The experiments show that all relevant POLAR objects, merged annotation targets, fragments and content annotations, are able to increase retrieval effectiveness when used as a context for discussion or document search. Additional experiments reveal that we can determine the polarity of annotations with an accuracy of around 80%