Information Retrieval List Digest 133 (October 13, 1992) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-133 ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 14:18:09 PST Reply-To: "Information Retrieval List" Sender: "Information Retrieval List" From: IRLIST Subject: IR-L Digest, Vol.IX,No.37, Issue 133 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 October 13, 1992 Volume IX, Number 37 Issue 133 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES C. Miscellaneous 1. News from RLG II. QUERIES A. Questions and Answers 1. Classification for The Computer Sciences 2. Seeking an Electronic Stop-List IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.C.1. Fr: Jennifer Porro Re: News from RLG (The following is an announcement from the Research Libraries Group. It has been cross-posted to several library-related listservs.) RLG DEVELOPS Z39.50 SERVER FOR INTERNET USE October 6, 1992 -- The Research Libraries Group (RLG) has developed a Z39.50 server for searching its RLIN and CitaDel databases, and 14 institutions nationwide have now successfully tested the server over the Internet. The Z39.50 server, when fully implemented, will make it easier for users of other online catalogs to search RLG's databases. Z39.50 is a national standard (ANSI/NISO Z39.50) for computer-to- computer information retrieval that enables users to search other online library catalogs and information sources using the same commands they use to search their local online catalog. As more and more information providers implement this standard, the goal of global information resource sharing will come closer to attainment. The Z39.50 protocol translates commands back and forth between the requesting system (called a "client") and the system with the database being searched (called a "server"), even if the two systems run on different hardware or use different commands and screen displays. As long as both systems support Z39.50, users of one system can search on the other as if it were their local system. Institutions that have tested RLG's server include AT&T Bell Laboratories, Data Research Associates, Innovative Interfaces, Library of Congress, NOTIS, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, and University of California Division of Library Automation -- all are members of a Z39.50 implementation group established by the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and provide feedback to each other on testing. Others who have tested the RLG server are Brown University, Dartmouth College, Gaylord Brothers, OCLC, and University of Tennessee at Knoxville. All testers have their own Z39.50 clients. For more information about RLG's Z39.50 server, please contact: Lennie Stovel, Research Libraries Group, 1200 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041-1100; phone 415/691-2259; FAX 415/964-0943; e-mail BL.MDS@RLG.BITNET or BL.MDS@RLG.STANFORD.EDU (Internet). ********************************************************** II. QUERIES II.A.1. Fr: Gordon Joly Re: Classification for The Computer Sciences. The use of the Computer Reviews classification scheme is widespread. Are there any other schemes, at all, (we know of BLISS)? Gordon Joly. Gordon Joly Phone +44 71 387 7050 ext 3703 FAX +44 71 387 1397 Internet: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk UUCP: ...!{uunet,uknet}!ucl-cs!G.Joly Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, LONDON WC1E 6BT ********** II.A.2. Fr: Larry Re: Seeking an electronic stop-list I wonder if somebody might be able to point us in a direction. My wife and I are currently writing our doctoral thesis in education, and we are using IR techniques with evolving, electronic educational databases. She is working with children and a system called Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environments (CSILE) and I am working with adults using computer conferencing. We are looking for an electronic stop-list which we can use. By stop-list, I mean a list of non-information bearing words in the English language. I know such lists exist on paper--and we certainly can transcribe these--but I am hoping something already exists that could be retrieved over internet or some other network. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Larry Hopperton LHOPPERTON@OISE1.OISE.ON.CA ********************************************************** IV. PROJECT WORK IV.C.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being related to Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer search, using BRS Information Technologies, of the Dissertation Abstracts Online database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are UMI order number, title, author, degree, year, institution; number of pages, one or more Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) subject descriptors chosen by the author, and abstract. Unless otherwise specified, paper or microform copies of dissertations may be ordered from University Microfilms International, Dissertation Copies, Post Office Box 1764, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; telephone for U.S. (except Michigan, Hawaii, Alaska): 1-800-521-3042, for Canada: 1-800-268-6090. Price lists and other ordering and shipping information are in the introduction to the published DAI. An alternate source for copies is sometimes provided. Dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGNN-64263. AU LUNDBERG, NORMA JUNE. TI THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF BIRTH CONTROL INFORMATION IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES. IN The University of Western Ontario (Canada) Ph.D. 1991, 363 pages. SO DAI V52(09), SecA, pp3117. DE Library Science. Health Sciences, Public Health. IS ISBN: 0-315-64263-7. AB This thesis aimed to discover how difficult it might be for women to obtain birth control information from public libraries, especially information produced by women and relevant to women's control of our reproductive health. I examined the public library as a social institution, birth control information as a socially organized process, and within this framework the availability of women's knowledge. I used the methodological approach of institutional ethnography to explore the social relations that organize librarians' work and connect it to other social institutions. The ideology of doing library work, the discourse that organizes the work, and the textual manifestations of the work processes were central to this approach. Using interviews, observation, and textual analysis, I examined the ways in which public librarians acquire, organize, and provide intellectual access to the texts and documents in their collections. Birth control information was the entry point that organized the research. The research focused on the organization of librarians' work, their handling of information particularly from non-mainstream sources and in non-standard formats, and the libraries' responsiveness to their communities. Librarians experienced time constraints in their work related to increased bureaucratization and automation. The librarians tended to decontextualize information in all areas of their work and present it as neutral and value free. Their work with the community was related more to legitimized social agencies and institutions than to community-based citizens' groups. People in the community had virtually no input to the library decision-making process. The combined effect of time constraints, the decontextualization of information, and the non-involvement of the library's community has had a negative effect in providing access to women-centred birth control information to women. Information serving the interests of the population control establishment have been incorporated into collections and women's knowledge has been marginalized. Moreover, the practices that make access to women's knowledge problematic also stand to have a negative effect on the access of other people to the kind of information that serves their interests. Further research in the social organization of knowledge would contribute to a greater understanding of the public library's role in mediating information and perpetuating inequities of access. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGDX-94354. AU JONES, JULIAN LLOYD. TI ITERATIVE DEVELOPMENT, SYSTEM DESIGN, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. IN University of York (United Kingdom) Ph.D. 1990, 176 pages. SO DAI V52(08), SecB, pp4504. DE Psychology, Industrial. Computer Science. AB Available from UMI in association with The British Library. This thesis examines the relationship between system design and psychology. The perspective taken is from the point of view of a psychologist, working in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), who is intent on contributing most effectively to the design of better computer systems. A conclusion that is reached very early on in the thesis is that the psychologist can contribute most effectively by integrating the activities of system design and psychology and pursuing both activities equally intently. This conclusion is formulated on the basis of the debate between Newell and Card (1985; 1986) and Carroll and Campbell (1986) on the role of technical theories in HCI, and in the light of Long's (1986;1987;1989) framework for HCI research. Hitherto, arguments in favour of a parity between system design and psychology were general enough that if they were true, they were true for any applied science. In order to identify those arguments most pertinent to the field of HCI, three experiments were conducted. These experiments manipulate the interplays made possible between system design and psychology when brought together in the redesign of the user-interface to an Online Public Access Catalog. What were two disparate domains, found commonality through the shared use of behavioural data. It is concluded that the primary benefits afforded to the psychologist working in the field of HCI, and obtained by integrating system design and psychology, arise as a result of an increase to: the power of an experiment; the speed with which one is able to identify the major and minor obstacles to perfect performance; the precision of the mapping possible between the worlds of system design and psychology; the opportunities available for paradigm shifts. In addition, it is noted that iterative development provides the capability to accentuate each one of these primary benefits. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG91-36575. AU CONNELL, TSCHERA HARKNESS. TI LIBRARIAN SUBJECT SEARCHING IN ONLINE CATALOGS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE USED. IN University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. 1991, 302 pages. SO DAI V52(07), SecA, pp2307. DE Library Science. Information Science. AB This research was designed to begin to identify and characterize the knowledge used by experienced librarians while searching for subject information in online catalogs. If we begin to understand what knowledge is used by skilled searchers of online catalogs, then perhaps that knowledge can be built into library systems so that the inexperienced or infrequent user can benefit from specialist knowledge without having to develop the expertise explicitly. Ten experienced librarians (catalogers and reference librarians) performed the same set of six subject searches in the Illinet Online catalog used by many libraries throughout the state of Illinois. Investigated was the knowledge used to solve retrieval problems. This knowledge represents expertise in the use of the catalog. Techniques of knowledge acquisition used by knowledge engineers in building expert systems were used for knowledge elicitation. Data were collected through the use of think-aloud protocols, transaction logs, and structured interviews. Knowledge was defined as knowledge of objects (factual knowledge), knowledge of events (experiential knowledge), knowledge of performance (process knowledge), and metaknowledge. The first stage of analysis involved extracting from the think-aloud protocols evidence of factual and experiential knowledge. Evidence for factual knowledge was primarily the presence of nouns and adjectives used by librarians during the process of searching. The evidence for experiential knowledge was explicit statements indicating that the searcher was relating the present event to previous search experience. The second stage of analysis involved more in-depth analysis of the transaction logs and think-aloud protocols for evidence of process and metaknowledge. For process knowledge, the data were examined for evidence of search patterns. Analysis concentrated on (1) the kinds of searches participants used, (2) the search patterns that resulted in item selection, (3) the factors that caused the participants to modify their approach to the search task, (4) the supplementary tools, and the elements on the bibliographic record that participants used, and (5) the effects of system design on searching. For evidence of metaknowledge the data were examined for reasons that participants gave for actions taken and observations made, and for evidence that participants evaluated their own performance. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-00338. AU GOODOVITCH, TOMER. TI A MODEL OF THE MARKET FOR CIVIL AVIATION: THE LIBERALIZATION OF EUROPE. IN University of Pennsylvania Ph.D. 1991, 239 pages. SO DAI V52(07), SecA, pp2725. DE Transportation. History, European. Operations Research. AB The international air-transport industry is quite complex and is influenced by a variety of political, economic and environmental institutions. The intricacy of the air-transport industry affects the international regulatory system which is often affected by domestic markets, international agreements, environmental problems, and inefficient service. It is difficult, therefore, to intuitively predict the consequences of the liberalization of European aviation policy and the increasing number of mergers and acquisitions among airlines and the possible formation of supra-aviation corporations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the changes that will result from a more liberal aviation policy in Europe by developing a formal model (CAMEC) of the European Community in order to enable decision-makers to conduct analyses of international civil aviation policies in the 1990s. We emphasized the importance of visualization and ease of use in decision support systems which facilitate the analyses of airline scheduling and routing problems. In particular we developed a network model of the European community in which we simulate each carrier's or country's route scheduling, given information about travel demand, slot availability, route and aircraft characteristics, and managerial and political constraints. We formulated and solved the problem (faced similarly by individual airlines) as a mixed linear integer program. The model is integrated with a geographical information system, which allows a user to store, retrieve and modify information through the selection of its spatial characteristics. This ability facilitates user input to CAMEC and the visual display of the results. As a flexible GIS model, users of CAMEC can perform several policy analyses and implement a course of scenarios in which one scenario is built upon another and variations are reflected graphically or as a report. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG91-35695. AU SMIT, PETER HANS. TI DESIGNING HYPERTEXT RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS FOR POLICY ADVISERS, REVIEW AND EVALUATION. IN The University of Michigan Ph.D. 1991, 357 pages. SO DAI V52(07), SecA, pp2728. DE Urban and Regional Planning. Political Science, Public Administration. Business Administration, Management. Information Science. AB This study investigates the responses of policy advisers to selected features of a proposed hypertext system. Hypertext is a novel computerized information system that makes text available in the form of short segments which refer to each other and which can be retrieved in any order. The study also provides literature reviews of selected, optional hypertext features, of research on reading texts of different lengths, and of prototyping techniques for the early stages of system development. The output of different versions of a hypertext system was shown to policy advisers at a large government office in Washington D.C. Results indicate: (1) The choice between displays of up to 12 or 24 lines in length does not affect policy advisers' evaluations of the information system prototype. However, the evaluations do show some interactions: small displays are negatively related to appreciation for a searching tool, positively related to appreciation of the system with an alphabetical index, and large displays are positively related to expected ease of use of the system with the index. (2) Text and index are evaluated reasonably positively in the disaggregated form that hypertext requires. However, evaluation of a system version with a searching tool, also presented in disaggregated form, is not as good as evaluation of a system version without that tool under particular circumstances (when the displays are small, and when the version without the tool is shown first). are small, and when the version without the tool is shown first). The study offers suggestions to improve the design of the searching tool and to improve other features of the demonstrated system, based on comments made during fifty evaluations. The prototyping technique used here does not require programming or expensive recording equipment, thus allowing almost any office worker to pretest proposed software or software improvements before calling on a computer specialist for actual development and implementation. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests to: LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET Send submissions to IRLIST to: IR-L@UCCVMA.BITNET Editorial Staff: Clifford Lynch calur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu or calur@uccmvsa.bitnet Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.bitnet Mary Engle meeur@uccmvsa.bitnet The IRLIST Archives will be set up for anonymous FTP, and the address will be announced in future issues. To access back issues presently, send the message INDEX IR-L to LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET. 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