Document Retrieval Using The MPS Information Server (A Report on the TREC-5 Experiment)

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results of the experiments conducted by FS Consulting, Inc. as part of the Fifth Text Retrieval Experiment Conference (TREC-5). We participated in Category C, ran the ad-hoc experiments and participated in the database merging track, producing three sets of official results (fsclt3, fsclt4 and fsclt3m) as well as some unofficial results (fsclt4a). Our long-term research interest is in building information retrieval systems that help users find information to solve real-world problems. Our TREC-5 participation centered on two goals: to see if automatic query reformulation (relevance feedback) provides better results than the searcher's query reformulation; and to evaluate the effectiveness of the document scoring algorithms when searching across multiple databases. Our TREC-5 ad-hoc experiments were designed around a model of an experienced end user of information systems, one who might regularly use a system like the MPS Information Server while seeking information in a workplace or library setting 2 Overview of FS Consulting TREC-5 Experiment