Personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries

Widespread use of the Internet has resulted in digital libraries that are increasingly used by diverse communities of users for diverse purposes and in which sharing and collaboration have become important social elements. As such libraries become commonplace, as their contents and services become more varied, and as their patrons become more experienced with computer technology, users will expect more sophisticated services from these libraries. A simple search function, normally an integral part of any digital library, increasingly leads to user frustration as user needs become more complex and as the volume of managed information increases. Proactive digital libraries, where the library evolves from being passive and untailored, are seen as offering great potential for addressing and overcoming these issues and include techniques such as personalisation and recommender systems. In this paper, following on from the DELOS/NSF Working Group on Personalisation and Recommender Systems for Digital Libraries, which met and reported during 2003, we present some background material on the scope of personalisation and recommender systems in digital libraries. We then outline the working group’s vision for the evolution of digital libraries and the role that personalisation and recommender systems will play, and we present a series of research challenges and specific recommendations and research priorities for the field

Peranan Perpustakaan dalam Mendukung pevasive Learning Environment

Makalah ini membahas tentang peranan perpustakaan dalam mendukung Pervasive Learning Environment. Terminologi “Pervasive Lerning Environment” menjadi populer beberapa tahun terakhir ini sejak diperkenalkannya berbagai peralatanelektronik genggam (handheld) yang dapat membantu komunikasi dan komputasi di mana saja dan kapan saja seperti Personal Digital Assisstant (PDA) dan smart phone.Dalam makalah ini dijelaskan tentang implementasi dukungan perpustakaan digital (digital library) dalam mendukung lingkungan belajar yang kaya teknologi berbentuk alat berukuran kecil seperti PDA. Secara ringkas makalah ini juga dijelaskan tentang kemungkinan kedepan maraknya akses ke perpustakaan digital dengan pervasive devices. Disamping itu dalam makalah ini ditampilkan perspektif teknologi baru berupa peralatan elektronik genggam seperti PDA yang dapat mengakses perpustakaan digital yang merupakan pintu yang memberikan kunci untuk memasuki sumber informasi yangtidak gratis. Digital library juga dapat dihubungkan dengan Learning Management System yang sebagian besar mengikuti standar Sharable Courseware Object Reference Model (SCORM). Dapat disimpulkan bahwa perpustakaan dijita yang mendukung akses nirkabel (wireless) akan sangat membantu civitas academica dalam proses belajar mengajar dan riset

PerCon: A Personal Digital Library for Heterogeneous Data Management and Analysis

Systems are needed to support access to and analysis of larger and more heterogeneous scientific datasets. Users need support in the location, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data to support their current activities with appropriate services and tools. We developed PerCon, a data management and analysis environment, to support such use. PerCon processes and integrates data gathered via queries to existing data providers to create a personal or a small group digital library of data. Users may then search, browse, visualize, annotate, and organize the data as they proceed with analysis and interpretation. Analysis and interpretation in PerCon takes place in a visual workspace in which multiple data visualizations and annotations are placed into spatial arrangements based on the current task. The system watches for patterns in the user’s data selection, exploration, and organization, then through mixed-initiative interaction assists users by suggesting potentially relevant data from unexplored data sources. In order to identify relevant data, PerCon builds up various precomputed feature tables of data objects including their metadata (e.g. similarities, distances) and a user interest model to infer the user interest or specific information need. In particular, probabilistic networks in PerCon model user interactions (i.e. event features) and predict the data type of greatest interest through network training. In turn, the most relevant data objects of interest in the inferred data type are identified through a weighted feature computation then recommended to the user. PerCon’s data location and analysis capabilities were evaluated in a controlled study with 24 users. The study participants were asked to locate and analyze heterogeneous weather and river data with and without the visual workspace and mixed-initiative interaction, respectively. Results indicate that the visual workspace facilitated information representation and aided in the identification of relationships between datasets. The system’s suggestions encouraged data exploration, leading participants to identify more evidences of correlation among data streams and more potential interactions among weather and river data

Data Sharing and Secondary Use of Scientific Data: Experiences of Ecologists

In recent years, scientific disciplines related to global, environmental problem solving have been a special target of data sharing efforts. Yet, very little research exists to guide the organization of scientific data sources or to understand the technical and social infrastructures needed to support the secondary use of data. Ecology is one of the disciplines that contributes to our knowledge of the natural world, but several factors complicate the sharing and reuse of ecological data. I conducted in-depth interviews to investigate the experiences of ecologists who used data they did not collect themselves in order to understand how they overcome these challenges. My findings extend our knowledge of information reuse, and they have implications for the design of digital libraries, for the development of standards, and for the creation of data sharing policies and programs. Fieldwork performs an important function in shaping ecologists' formal and informal knowledge, which carries over to their reuse of data. The informal knowledge ecologists acquire as collectors of their own data in the field or laboratory plays the most important role in their reuse of data. The secondary use of data on a large scale requires a greater emphasis on standardization, peer review, and quality control, which alters the extent of reliance on informal knowledge. However, a formal system offers only some of the information that scientists require to reuse data, and there is a danger in thinking that informal knowledge is easily replaced and is no longer necessary or important. My study shows how social exchange is an integral part of all scientific understanding. Standard research methods, metadata standards, and common storage formats make it possible to integrate data on a large scale, but this power comes from leaving out information that is necessary to secondary data use. Ecology teaches us that there are multiple sides to issues of trust, standards, understanding, and judgments about data quality. To be effective vehicles of data sharing, digital libraries and data repositories must capture public and private knowledge and must find ways to document the implicit knowledge that ecologists recognize and can articulate.Ph.D.Information and Library StudiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39373/2/ann_zimmerman_dissertation_2003.pd