Information Retrieval List Digest 182 (October 4, 1993) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-182 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 October 4, 1993 Volume X, Number 38 Issue 182 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. Int'l. Conf. on New Methods in Language Processing 2. CAIS '94: Information Industry in Transition IV. PROJECT WORK C. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.1. Fr: Daniel Jones Re: International Conference on New Methods in Language Processing International Conference on New Methods in Language Processing CALL FOR PAPERS Dates: 6-8th July 1994 Centre for Computational Linguistics, UMIST, Manchester, UK. PURPOSE: In recent years there has been a steadily increasing interest in alternative theories and methodologies to the mainstream techniques of symbolic computational linguistics. This international conference will provide a forum for researchers in the broad area of new methods in NLP, i.e., symbolic and non-symbolic techniques of analogy-based, statistical, and connectionist processing, to present their most recent research and to discuss its implications. To focus the conference, the concentration will be on research primarily involving written NLP. It is also hoped that the conference will promote discussion in general terms of what this branch of NLP hopes to achieve and how far this paradigm can take NLP in the future. TOPICS OF INTEREST: Example- and Memory-based MT * Corpus-based NLP * Bootstrapping techniques * Analogy-based NLP * Connectionist NLP * Statistical MT/NLP * Theoretical issues of sub-symbolic vs. symbolic NLP * Hybrid approaches DEADLINES: Preliminary paper submission deadline: 31st January 1994 Acceptance Notification by: 1st April 1994 Camera-ready copy due: 1st June 1994 SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Authors should submit FOUR hard copies of a preliminary version of the paper (NOT an outline or abstract) which should be no longer than 6 (A4) pages long, printed no smaller than 10-point. Papers should include a brief abstract and a list of key words indicating which of the above topics are addressed. A contact address for the author(s) (preferably e-mail) should also be included. SEND PAPERS TO: NeMLaP, Centre for Computational Linguistics, UMIST, Sackville Street, Manchester, UK. Enquiries : nemlap@ccl.umist.ac.uk ********** I.A.2. Fr: Robert Clarke Re: CAIS'94 Call for Papers INFORMATION INDUSTRY IN TRANSITION Canadian Association for Information Science 22nd Annual Conference May 25 - May 27, 1994 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Canadian Association for Information Science in its 22nd Annual Conference will explore the transformation of information industry, from its modest beginning with a handful of online vendors to its current position involving some 5,000 organizations, and its future development. Experts, researchers and academia are invited to join CAIS to address the following issues: * Information, its nature and form * Information technology * Information providers * Information networks * Information products and services * Information users The conference will be held in Montreal, from May 25 to May 27 at McGill University. It will include keynote speakers, presentations, panel discussions and poster sessions. Papers will be fully refereed and published in the proceedings. PLEASE SEND SUBMISSIONS BY MARCH 1, 1994 TO: Jamshid Beheshti Co-Chair, Conference Committee, (English) Program Committee Graduate School of Library & Information Studies McGill University 3459 McTavish Street, Montr al, Quebec, H3A 1Y1, Canada Tel: (514) 398-4204 Fax: (514) 398-7193 e-mail: injz@musicb.mcgill.ca James Turner Co-Chair, Conference Committee, (French) Program Committee Universite de Montreal Ecole de bibliotheconomie et des sciences de l'information Montr al, Quebec, H3C 3J7, Canada Tel: (514) 343-2454 Fax: (514) 343-5753 e-mail: turner@ere.umontreal.ca INFORMATION FOR THE AUTHORS: Research and scholarly articles on the above topics are accepted for publication in the proceedings of CAIS/ACSI '94 conference. Manuscripts should not exceed 3000 words and should have proper references, tables, graphs and illustrations if appropriate. Two copies of manuscripts should be submitted in hardcopy for refereeing no later than March 1, 1994. Authors will be notified by Fax or E-mail of acceptance and possible revisions of their papers. Copies of the final paper must be submitted in hardcopy and ASCII computer file by April 21 for typesetting. For further information, please contact Jamshid Beheshti or James Turner. ********************************************************** 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 ADG92-36073. AU OLSEN, JANETTE R. TI IMPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC JOURNAL LITERATURE FOR SCHOLARS. IN Cornell University Ph.D. 1992, 102 pages. SO DAI V53(07), SecA, pp2267. DE Engineering, Higher. Education, Technology. AB The issue at the heart of this study is that while the use of electronic journals provides scholars with some advantages over using the printed journals, that same technology can provide disadvantages which militate against the effective use of journal literature and therefore against the process of scholarship. This study examined the nature of the interaction between the scholar and the literature so that the aspects of that interaction which are fundamental to scholarship could be identified for electronic journal systems designers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 46 scholars evenly divided between the social sciences, physical sciences and humanities in two major universities. The interviews explored the scholars' use of journal literature, their styles of reading it, their perceptions of the advantages of reading journal literature in printed form and their speculations on using it in electronic form. The results have identified specific functions and principles of design for a system of electronic journals. The conclusions indicate that the interaction conducted by scholars with the text of journal literature is very different from that carried out by a user with other types of text. For the scholar, it is very often not a matter of setting out to locate definable information, but a matter of entering an extensive knowledge environment and casting around for "an intellectual adventure of some sort." This represents the key difference between the way information is sought and found in journal literature and the way it is sought and found by users of other bodies of text. This is significant since the process is intrinsic to the scholars' real purposes in using journal literature--learning, creative thinking and analytical thinking. If a system of electronic journals is to be built to support the scholars' effective interaction with the literature, then two major design problems must be solved. The first is to allow human, not computer cognition to make the "connections" with the literature which is optimal, and the second is to support the scholars' visual comfort and reading styles. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-31644. AU PARK, TAEMIN KIM. TI THE NATURE OF RELEVANCE IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY. IN Indiana University Ph.D. 1992, 209 pages. SO DAI V53(07), SecA, pp2139. DE Information Science. Library Science. AB This research is concerned with end users' evaluative attitudes and behaviors in accepting or rejecting citations from a document retrieval system--the concept of "relevance." In spite of a rich literature about the meaning of relevance in information science, a consensus meaning has not yet been found. The nature of relevance has not been investigated from the end users' point of view and an empirical study concerning end users' concept of relevance does not exist. Relevance and relevance judgments play a key role in the evaluation of the performance of a document retrieval system and are central to doing experimental information retrieval (IR) research in particular. They have been employed as a standard criterion for measuring the effectiveness of an information system and have been a subject of heated debate from a methodological point of view. As a result, relevance and relevance judgements have become stumbling blocks for interpreting the results of IR experimental research as well as advancing IR theory. Using a naturalistic inquiry methodology, the present research is an empirical study of users' relevance interpretations. A model of a user's relevance interpretation is presented, which reflects the nature of the thought process of a user in evaluating bibliographic citations produced by a document retrieval system. Three major categories of interpretative criteria--internal context, external context and problem context--are identified and described. Users' relevance assessments involve several layers of interpretation that are derived from their experience, perceptions and private knowledge related to the particular information problem at hand. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADGMM-63229. 9212. AU PAULLEY, GLENN N. TI INFORMATION RETRIEVAL USING SIGNATURES IN AN OFFICE ENVIRONMENT. IN The University of Manitoba (Canada) M.Sc. 1990, 174 pages. SO MAI V30(04) pp940. DE Information Science. Computer Science. Business Administration, General. IS ISBN: 0-315-63229-1. AB An implementation of an information retrieval application for an office environment is described. The application uses a relatively new signature method developed by Faloutsos (Doubly-Compressed Bit Slices, or DCBS). DCBS was originally intended for use with Optical Disk technology, but may also be used with standard magnetic media. The implementation of the retrieval application is discussed from a number of perspectives, including a comparison of known signature techniques and implementation trade-offs. Characteristics of the office environment are discussed, and comparisons are made between theoretical search results and actual results in the model office. An evaluation of the use of this application in the model office shows a high degree of success in meeting the requirements of its users. Finally, ideas for future enhancements are presented along with topics for future research. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-34353. AU ROUSSEAU, RONALD. TI CONCENTRATION AND DIVERSITY IN INFORMETRIC RESEARCH. IN Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen (Belgium) Ph.D. 1992, 268 pages. SO DAI V53(07), SecA, pp2140. DE Information Science. Library Science. Mathematics. Biology, Ecology. Statistics. AB The purpose of this thesis is to make a study of functions being used to measure concentration and diversity. As a means to differentiate among functions presented in literature the axiomatic method is used, the Lorenz curve playing a significant part as well. First, the case is studied in which a number of items is distributed over a fixed number of sources. According to the distribution this leads to situations with different concentrations. By imposing more or less restricting requirements on functions a first classification of measures (type I, type II and type III) can be achieved for a fixed number of sources. The well-known Gini index e.g. is a concentration measure of type II, the coefficient of variation is a concentration measure of type III, and Shannon's index a diversity measure of type I. In this classification a measure of a particular type is automatically a measure of a type with a smaller number as well. Next, the interesting problem is studied where situations with a different number of sources are compared as for concentration or diversity. A number of new measures is proposed, inferred from a shifted version of the Lorenz curve. In the final chapter it is specified how to use these measures in informetrics: e.g. in the study of the evolution of bibliographies or in determining a set of core journals. AN University Microfilms Order Number ADG92-33281. 9212. AU COX, RICHARD JAMES. TI ARCHIVISTS, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, AND THE MODERN INFORMATION AGE: RE-EXAMINING ARCHIVAL INSTITUTIONS AND EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO STATE ARCHIVES AND STATE ARCHIVISTS. IN University of Pittsburgh Ph.D. 1992, 426 pages. SO DAI V53(06), SecA, pp1708. DE Library Science. Information Science. AB Since the mid-1960s, archivists in the United States have been engaged in the challenge of managing records created by electronic information systems. Despite three decades of activity, few archival institutions have developed programs to administer and preserve these special records. This study is an effort to understand why American archivists seem to have fared so poorly in the administration of electronic records by re-examining two major aspects of the archival profession: its institutional forms and structures (position descriptions and advertisements) and its educational foundations (graduate and continuing education programs). The primary research question being scrutinized in this study is this: Is the archival profession prepared to carry out its mission in the modern electronic information technology environment. This study concludes that the archival profession in the United States has not done well in structuring itself to manage electronic records. Five aspects of this American professional community suggest this conclusion. First, the professional literature seems to lack consensus on the nature of the impact of electronic records on archival theory and practice and how such records should be administered. Second, state government archives' position descriptions do not generally reflect knowledge and skill requirements needed for the management of electronic records. Third, there were virtually no job advertisements from 1976 through 1990 for electronic records specialists. Fourth, graduate archival education programs have offered only a few full courses on electronic records management, and the size and nature of these programs provide little opportunity for educating future archivists in electronic records work. Fifth, and finally, the advanced institute on electronic records and information policy offered to state government archivists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Library and Information Science from 1989 through 1992 suggests some of the weaknesses in the archival profession's reliance on continuing education for electronic records administration training. Despite the findings of this study, however, there are recent indications that the American archival profession is improving its ability to deal with electronic records. New publications, courses, programs, and research grant funds have appeared in the early 1990s. The impact of these recent developments on the American archivist's management of electronic records is, however, too early to determine. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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