Information Retrieval List Digest 242 (January 29, 1995) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-242 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 January 29, 1995 Volume XII, Number 5 Issue 242 ********************************************************** II. JOBS 1. OhioLINK: Director of New Services Development III. NOTICES B. Meetings 1. SIGIR '95: Poster Sessions 2. CETH '95: Summer Seminar on Electronic Texts IV. PROJECTS A. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.2. Fr: Tom Sanville Re: OhioLINK: Director of New Services Development Inquiries to: Tom Sanville OhioLINK 2455 North Star Rd Suite 300 Columbus, Ohio 43221 tom@ohiolink.edu 614-728-3600 x322 614-728-3610 fax OhioLINK new services may require new or existing technologies applied in new ways as extensions of traditional library practice or as a way of creating new paradigms. The OhioLINK community provides a rich resource for suggesting and implementing these new directions. The Director should have a mature and seasoned insight to add to the chorus. A strong, technological grounding is a must. But this is not the most important skill he/she will bring. It is a fundamental prerequisite that the director is as capable as any in seeing the potential and the impact of new service ideas on the OhioLINK and OhioLINK libraries' operations. Most importantly, the director must be capable of focusing on and sifting through ideas in a manner which will lead to sound, practical, leading-edge applications in our environment. While grasping the big picture, the Director must lead in the practical education of the OhioLINK community and lead in the practical evaluation and planning for the new services. As the task to envision the future is not the singular burden of this position , the Director must be able to work well with all sources of ideas and harness activities in pursuit of the best ideas. POSITION TITLE: Director of New Service Development REPORTS TO: OhioLINK Executive Director SALARY: Up to the mid-60's MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES: Will have primary responsibility to analyze, recommend, and coordinate plans for the introduction and use of new information technologies and services by OhioLINK and its member institutions. This will entail serving as key contact with information and library hardware, software, and database vendors, and providing leadership and support of OhioLINK committee, task force and other planning groups. QUALIFICATIONS: A master's degree in library science from an ALA-accredited program or Bachelor of Science or Arts in computer science, systems engineering, or a related technical field. Demonstrated knowledge of current and emerging information technologies. A minimum of five years library computer operations experience, including managerial/supervisory experience, in a university, academic consortium, or comparable environment. Excellent oral and written communication skills. The ability to work successfully in group settings to facilitate discussion and build consensus. The ability to work well with staff, vendors, and library representatives from academic, public, and corporate settings. DUTIES: 1. Serve as primary agent to investigate new services and technologies under consideration by OhioLINK. Prepare analysis, recommendations and plans for appropriate OhioLINK use.40% 2. Monitor new developments in information and library services. Provide input and recommendations to OhioLINK strategic plans.25% 3. Maintain ongoing dialogue with staff and OhioLINK committees concerning new services under consideration. Coordinate analyses and recommendations to include resources and expertise available for staff and committees.15% 4. Organize and oversee special implementation groups as necessary. 10% 5. Propose and coordinate educational programs and workshops for the OhioLINK community in new technologies and information services. 5% 6. Attend and represent OhioLINK on regional or industry committees or task forces. 5% ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.B.1. Fr: Efthimis N. Efthimiadis Re: SIGIR-95: Poster sessions For those of you who may have missed the deadline for submission of papers to the ACM/SIGIR Conference in Seattle - you still have time to submit a poster. CALL FOR POSTERS SIGIR'95 18th International Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval The Sheraton, Seattle, WA, USA July 9 - July 13, 1995 SIGIR '95 will include poster presentations to enable researchers an opportunity to present late-breaking results, significant work in progress, or research that is best communicated in conversational mode. Poster presenters will have the opportunity to exchange ideas one-on-one with attendees and to discuss their work in detail with those most deeply interested in the same topic. Posters will be reviewed by appropriate subject specialists as well as the Program Committee and will be selected on the basis of their contribution to research-focused discussion. Posters will be accepted a full month later than papers in order to provide an opportunity for submitting very current work that need not be written up in a full paper. Doctoral students are encouraged to consider poster submission as a viable means for discussing ongoing dissertation research. Submissions shall be made to the Posters Chair and shall consist of: (a) Abstract shall be submitted in three copies. (b) An extended abstract of approximately three to four pages. (c) Abstract shall emphasize the research problem, the approach or methodology being used, and why the work is important. (d) A separate cover page with the title of the poster, the name and affiliation of the author(s)/presenter(s), as well as complete contact information to include postal address, email address, phone number and fax number of the author(s). IMPORTANT DATES: FEB. 10, 1995 Submission of proposals for tutorials, panels, demonstrations, posters, and workshops to the relevant Chair MAR. 10, 1995 Author notification APR. 3, 1995 Final manuscript due in camera ready and electronic forms POSTERS CHAIR Elizabeth D. Liddy School of Information Studies 4-206 Syracuse University Syracuse, New York 13244-4100 email: liddy@mailbox.syr.edu phone: +1-315-443-4456 fax: +1-315-443-5806 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Detailed information regarding the conference is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.u.washington.edu (/public/sigir95/cfp). A full version of the Call for Papers (with all the details for submissions) is also available at the URL: http://info.sigir.acm.org./sigir/ under Upcoming Events ********** III.B.2. Fr: Susan Hockey Re: CETH 1995 Summer Seminar on Electronic Texts CENTER FOR ELECTRONIC TEXTS IN THE HUMANITIES Electronic Texts in the Humanities: Methods and Tools The Fourth Annual CETH Summer Seminar June 11 - 23, 1995 at Princeton University Seminar Directors Susan Hockey, Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities Willard McCarty, Centre for Computing in the Humanities An intensive two-week seminar is again being offered by the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH) in June 1995. The seminar will address a wide range of challenges and opportunities that electronic texts and software offer to teachers, scholars, and librarians in the humanities. The focus will be practical and methodological, with the immediate aim of assisting participants in their teaching, research and advising. Throughout the seminar, the instructors will provide assistance with designing projects, locating sources for texts and software, and solving practical problems. Ample computing facilities will be available. A small library of essential articles and books in humanities computing will be on hand to supplement printed seminar materials which include an extensive bibliography. SCHEDULE WEEK 1: JUNE 11-16 Plenary Session: What electronic texts are and where to find them; survey of existing inventories, archives, and other current resources. Plenary Session: Creating and capturing texts in electronic form; keyboard entry vs optical scanning. Introduction to text markup, surveying ad hoc methods. Tuesday, June 13 Plenary Session: Introduction to basic tools: concordances and text retrieval. Demonstration and discussion of TACT. Plenary Session: Overview of the Text Encoding Initiative and the Standard Generalized Markup Language. Wednesday, June 14 Plenary Session: Large textual databases. ARTFL. Dartmouth Dante Project, Oxford English Dictionary. Thursday, June 15 Plenary Session: Electronic editions and scholarly publishing (panel). Friday, June 16 Plenary Session: Introduction to structured databases. WEEK 2: JUNE 19-23 Plenary Session: Hypertext for the humanities. Tuesday, June 20 Plenary Session: Overview of digital imaging techniques. Wednesday, June 21 Plenary Session: Institutional support for electronic texts (panel). Thursday, June 22 Plenary Session: Discussion on the limitations of existing software. Advanced analytical tools and lexical resources. Plenary Session: Presentation of participants' projects. Friday, June 23 Plenary Session: Presentation of participants' projects. Plenary Session: Concluding discussion of basic questions. What from a scholarly and methodological perspective is to be gained? What are the probable effects on research and teaching? Where do we go from here with software and its application? How can the machine better assist us in educating the imagination? 1. Textual Analysis. Instructors: Susan Hockey; Willard McCarty 2. Text Encoding Initiative and SGML Processing TEI encoded texts. Instructor: CM Sperberg-McQueen 3. Scholarly Editing. Instructor: Peter Robinson 4. Hypertext for the Humanities. Instructor: Geoffrey Rockwell 5. Tools for Historical Analysis. Instructor: Daniel Greenstein 6. Setting up an Electronic Text Center. Instructor: Anita Lowry APPLICATION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 21, 1995 NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE BY MARCH 21, 1995 APPLICATION: Enrollment is limited to sixty participants. Application requires two parts: a cover sheet and a statement of interest. FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, CONTACT: CETH Summer Seminar 1995 Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities 169 College Avenue New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903 U.S.A. Phone: 908/932-1384 Fax: 908/932-1386 Bitnet: ceth@zodiac Internet: ceth@zodiac.rutgers.edu ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.A.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey Re: IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts - August 1994 Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts Compiled by: Susanne M. Humphrey, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894 The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being of potential interest to the Information Retrieval (IR), resulting from a computer search, using the CDP/Online system, of the Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) database produced by University Microfilms International (UMI). Included are accession number (AN); author (AU); title (TI); degree, institution, year, number of pages (IN); UMI order number (DD); reference to the published DAI (SO); abstract (AB); one or more DAI subject descriptors chosen by the author (DE); thesis adviser (AR); and dates associated with the monthly update file (UP). 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: 1-800-343-5299; fax: 313-973-1540. 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 AAI9420497 AU White, Anita Rose. TI TRAINING END-USERS ON DATABASE QUERIES: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXAMPLE FORMAT AND SPATIAL ABILITY ON LEARNING OUTCOMES (END USER TRAINING). IN Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, 1993, 167p. DD Order Number: AAI9420497. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0405. AB Despite vendors' claims of user friendliness, people continue to have difficulties using software packages. Are our training manuals as effective as they could be? Previous studies in software training manuals emphasized the manual's content. While content is important, recent studies on training in mathematics, physics, and numerical control programming indicate that format can influence the effectiveness of examples used in training manuals. This study examined the effect of different training formats (split attention vs. integrated examples), learning outcomes (near transfer vs. far transfer tasks), and spatial ability (high and low) in an experiment where subjects received training in the execution of queries using the database application package Paradox. Sixty-five subjects were assigned to conditions with different training manuals on the basis of their spatial ability. Subjects were tested on both near and far transfer of learning tasks. The results indicated that on near transfer tasks subjects trained with integrated examples obtained higher accuracy scores than those trained with split attention examples. However, on far transfer tasks, spatial ability rather than type of example was associated with better performance. Subjects with high spatial ability obtained higher accuracy scores and spent less time on the training manual and on the task than did subjects with low spatial ability. DE Information Science. Business Administration, Management. Computer Science. Education, Psychology. AR Swanson, e Burton. Markus, M Lynne. UP 9408. Revised: 940902. AN AAINN86393 AU Wilson, Blake Fleming Michael. TI AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SEMANTIC WARRANTS EXERCISED IN THESAURUS CONSTRUCTION (LITERARY WARRANT, USER WARRANT, CONSENSUS). IN Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO (CANADA), 1993, 188p. DD Order Number: AAINN86393. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0405. AB The primary objective of this thesis is to characterize and compare the thesaurus vocabularies generated by exercising in two subject fields (Social Work and Aerospace Engineering) each of the three semantic warrants: literary warrant, user warrant, and consensus. A determination of how each warrant constrains the selection of terms and thereby shapes the thesaurus vocabulary in made on the basis of differences among the vocabularies generated. The fact that the chose fields lie at opposite ends of an abstract-concrete conceptual continue makes it possible to test two hypothesis: that vocabulary commonality and that terminological precision would be significantly higher in the concrete field (Aerospace Engineering) than in the abstract field (Social Work). A vocabulary representing literary warrant sources was compiled in each field from terms in journal abstract. A vocabulary representing user warrant sources was compiled in each field from terms in non-negotiated search requests and profiles. A vocabulary representing published sources of consensus was compiled from dictionaries in each field. Terms in the literary warrant and user warrant vocabularies were ranked by their frequency of entailment in dictionary definitions. The three vocabularies were compiled within each field on the basis of: rankings assigned to shared terms (a rank-order correlation coefficient was used as an index of association between rankings); the commonality between pairs of vocabularies (match and compatibility ratios were used); and terminological precision of each vocabulary (a measure of synonymy and a parallel measure of polysemy were used). The results of the statistical analysis indicate that the two subject fields do not differ significantly in vocabulary commonality and in terminological precision when comparisons are made without regard for warrant. These findings lead to the rejection of the two hypothesis tested. However, statistically significant differences were found between the warrant vocabularies within each field. Possible explanations of these findings are evaluated and the implication for thesaurus construction are discussed. DE Information Science. Library Science. AR Cockshutt, M E. IB 0-315-86393-5 UP 9408. Revised: 940902. AN AAI9420322 AU Gonzales, Joseph Ignatius Bengzon. TI MAPPING COGNITIVE, PERCEPTUAL, AND PHYSICAL ORGANIZATION: EFFECTS ON SPEED AND ACCURACY IN AN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL TASK. IN Thesis (PH.D.)--RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE, 1993, 375p. DD Order Number: AAI9420322. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-03, Section: B, page: 1207. AB "Organization" is defined as the "grouping and ordering of information." An "organization hypothesis" is proposed, stating that performance in computer-based tasks may be improved by mapping the "physical organization" and "perceptual organization" of the user interface to the "cognitive organization" of users. An important qualification to the hypothesis is that the physical or perceptual organization of the user interface must be critical to the task. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the organization hypothesis. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to sort a random sample of 100 nouns into groups. Then three databases were constructed that differed in their similarity to the subjects' original organization of the nouns. A second group of subjects was asked to search for target nouns in the databases. It was found that target search was faster and more accurate when the organization of the database approximated the cognitive organization of the first group of subjects. It was also discovered that the cognitive organization of the first group was remarkably consistent, and that the second group of subjects considered the meaningfulness of category titles to be the aspect of database organization most critical to the task. In the second experiment, the database in the first experiment that most closely corresponded to the cognitive organization of the subjects was used. Four versions of this database were constructed, differing in the way the nouns were arranged on the screen. A new group of subjects was randomly divided among the four databases and asked to search for target nouns by matching them to definitions on the screen. Faster and more accurate scores were recorded among the subjects who were assigned to the database that grouped the nouns on the screen according to the cognitive organization of the original group of subjects. Analysis of responses to a questionnaire revealed that most of these subjects were probably not conscious of this beneficial effect of mapping. Unexpectedly high levels of "sequential guessing" were recorded among all the subjects. Multiple regression analyses showed that among various background characteristics of the subjects, SAT Math scores were the strongest predictor of task performance. DE Psychology, Experimental. AR Krull, Robert. UP 9408. Revised: 940902. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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