Information Retrieval List Digest 263 (July 10, 1995) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-263 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 July 10, 1995 Volume XII, Number 26 Issue 263 ********************************************************** II. JOBS 1. NYU: US Government Documents Librarian III. NOTICES B. Meetings 1. Hypertext '96 2. SDAIR '96 IV. PROJECTS A. Abstracts 1. IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Lucinda Covert-Vail Re: NYU: US Government Documents Librarian US Government Documents Librarian Subject Specialist in US Politics and Public Administration DESCRIPTION: US government documents librarian and subject specialist in US politics and public administration assigned to the Business & Social Science/Documents Center in Bobst Library. Principal duties include administration, planning and evaluation of the US depository collection and supervision of US documents' clerical staff (1 FTE and student workers); reference assistance in business and the social sciences; collection development of print and electronic media; faculty liaison in US politics and public administration; and bibliographic instruction. Responsible for all functions related to US government publications including advanced reference assistance, management of government electronic resources, adherence to depository rules and regulations, staff training, and promotion of the US documents collection. QUALIFICATIONS: Accredited MLS, subject Master's degree required for tenure. Two years experience with government documents in an academic or special library. Experience with the Internet and various electronic media and a knowledge of emerging trends in government information publication and dissemination are essential. Supervisory experience and graduate study in a relevant field are preferred. Excellent oral and written communication skills; strong service orientation. SALARY/BENEFITS: Faculty status, excellent benefits include five weeks annual vacation. Salary commensurate with experience and background. Minimum: $34,000. TO APPLY: Send resume and letter of application, including the addresses and telephone numbers of 3 references to: Ms. Alice Deich, Library Personnel Director, New York University Libraries, 70 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled, but not later than July 31, 1995. ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.B.1. Fr: Jim French Re: Hypertext '96 HYPERTEXT '96 Seventh ACM Conference on Hypertext Washington DC, USA, March 16-20, 1996 "Docuverse Takes Form..." In the `70s Ted Nelson coined the term ``docuverse'' to describe a global network of interlinked and personalizable information. Now, two decades later, the docuverse is taking form. Graphics and computing technology now brings inexpensive hypermedia technology to everyone, and the World Wide Web is linking all those everyones together. Full details at URL http://acm.org/siglink/ht96-call.html Hypertext '96 is the seventh in the premier international series of ACM conferences on hypertext and hypermedia theory, systems, and applications. Originally a fall conference, the annual event has been moved to a spring schedule; locations will continue to alternate between the United States and Europe. We have enjoyed famous and picturesque settings for past conferences in this series -- Chapel Hill, Pittsburgh, Versailles, San Antonio, Milan, Seattle, Edinburgh -- and we think Washington will extend that record nicely. The city is very well connected for both international and US domestic travel, The conference hotel is the Hyatt Regency in Bethesda, right on the DC subway for easy access to the downtown sights as well as the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia. We certainly hope you will enjoy the conference setting, but the main attraction at Hypertext '96 is the technical program. We will present the latest results in Hypermedia research and development, including WWW technology. Plan now to visit the US national capital for a few days of professional development and collegial interaction. CRITICAL DATES: 1 Sept 95: Papers due; Proposals for Panels, Briefings, Workshops, and Courses due; Doctoral Consortium applications due 15 Oct 95: Notification of acceptance for Papers, Panels, Briefings, Doctoral Consortium, Workshops, and Courses 1 Dec 95: Proposals for Posters and Demos due; Final versions of accepted papers due 15 Jan 96: Notification of acceptance for Posters and Demos TECHNICAL PROGRAM: Hypertext '96 will provide a common setting for researchers and practicing professionals to share experiences and to compare notes about hypermedia authoring, publishing, system construction, human-computer interaction, digital libraries, and electronic literature. Attendees come with backgrounds in computing, psychology, literature, sociology, engineering, law, medicine -- many different fields. We invite your participation. Hypertext '96 will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of exciting and original developments in hypertext and hypermedia through several different technical formats: papers * panels and perspectives * demonstrations * posters * courses * technical workshops * doctoral consortium. TOPICS include but are not limited to: Large-scale distributed hypermedia (including WWW applications) * Collaborative hypermedia systems * Integration and open hypermedia architectures * Techniques for generating, recognizing and visualizing structure * Theories, models, and frameworks * Hypertext rhetoric and criticism * Empirical studies and hypermedia evaluation * Workplace deployment * Hypermedia interfaces to data bases * Structuring hypertext documents for reading and retrieval * Information design * Hypertext writing -- fiction, scholarship, and technical * Innovative hypertexts and novel uses of hypertext and hypermedia * Underlying technologies (persistent object stores, link services, databases, information retrieval, versioning, access control). THE ENGELBART BEST PAPER AWARD: At ECHT'94 in Edinburgh, SIGLINK, the ACM's Special Interest Group on Hypertext and Hypermedia, announced the inauguration of a new annual award, the Engelbart Award, for best conference paper. The award is named after Doug Engelbart, in recognition of his life's work and contributions to the field of hypertext and hypermedia. The first presentation of this prestigious award, which carries with it a $1,000 cash prize, will take place at Hypertext '96. FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Email to ht96-info@cs.unc.edu David Stotts (General Chair) Catherine Marshall (Program Chair) Department of Computer Science Hypermedia Research Lab University of North Carolina Department of Computer Science Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175 Texas A&M University stotts@cs.unc.edu College Station, TX 77843-3112 phone: (919) 962-1833 marshall@bush.cs.tamu.edu fax: (919) 962-1799 phone: (409) 845-9980 fax: (409) 847-8578 ********** III.B.2. Fr: Andrew D Bagdanov Re: SDAIR '96 SDAIR '96 Fifth Annual Symposium on Document Analysis and Information Retrieval April 15-17, 1996 Alexis Park Resort, Las Vegas, Nevada SPONSOR: Information Science Research Institute University of Nevada, Las Vegas SCOPE: The purpose of this symposium is to present results of state-of-the-art research and to encourage the exchange of ideas in the general field of automatic extraction of information from images of printed documents. Papers are solicited on all aspects of document image analysis and information retrieval, both theoretical and applied, with particular emphasis on: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS: High-Accuracy Transcription Postprocessing of OCR Results Keyword Search in Textual Images Multilingual OCR, Language ID, etc. Geometric and Logical Layout Analysis Recognition of Forms, Tables and Equations Models of Document Image Degradation Methods for Performance Evaluation INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: Full-Text Retrieval Retrieval from OCR'ed Text Image and Multimedia Retrieval Text Categorization Retrieval from Structured Documents Language-Specific Influences on Retrieval Evaluation of IR Systems Text Representation Papers on subjects in the intersection of these two areas will be given priority. SUBMISSIONS: Please send five copies of complete papers, with the corresponding author's name, postal address, telephone and fax numbers and e-mail address, to the appropriate Chair: Andreas Dengel, Chair (Document Analysis) c/o Information Science Research Institute University of Nevada, Las Vegas 4505 Maryland Parkway Box 454021 Las Vegas, NV 89154-4021 Jan O. Pedersen, Chair (Info. Retrieval) c/o Information Science Research Institute University of Nevada, Las Vegas 4505 Maryland Parkway Box 454021 Las Vegas, NV 89154-4021 Manuscripts should be no longer than 20 double-spaced pages or 5,000 words and should not already have been accepted for publication by another conference or journal, nor should they be submitted elsewhere during the SDAIR'96 review period. Both camera-ready paper and machine-readable source copies of accepted papers will be required. The proceedings will be available at the conference. CONFERENCE TIMETABLE: Papers Due: September 30, 1995 Notification To Authors: December 1, 1995 Camera Ready & Machine Readable Copy: January 15, 1996 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS COMMITTEE: Andreas DENGEL, Chair, German Research Center for AI Norbert BARTNECK, Daimler Benz Research Center Hiromichi FUJISAWA, Hitachi Central Research Lab Jonathan HULL, Ricoh California Research Center Junichi KANAI, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Larry SPITZ, Consultant, Palo Alto, CA Suzanne TAYLOR, Loral Corporation Karl TOMBRE, INRIA Lorraine INFORMATION RETRIEVAL COMMITTEE: Jan PEDERSEN, Chair, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Susan DUMAIS, Bellcore Stephen GALLANT, Belmont, Inc. Donna HARMAN, National Institute of Standards & Technology Marti HEARST, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center David LEWIS, AT&T Bell Laboratories Peter SCHAUBLE, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Kazem TAGHVA, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Yiming YANG, Mayo Clinic/Foundation ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.A.1. Fr: Susanne M. Humphrey, Re: Selected IR-Related Dissertation Abstracts The following are citations selected by title and abstract as being of potential interest to the Information Retrieval (IR) community, 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 AAI9430020 AU Wolverton, Michael John. TI RETRIEVING SEMANTICALLY DISTANT ANALOGIES (SPREADING ACTIVATION). IN Thesis (PH.D.)--STANFORD UNIVERSITY, 1994, 121p. DD Order Number: AAI9430020. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 2861. AB Techniques that have traditionally been useful for retrieving same-domain analogies from small single-use knowledge bases, such as spreading activation and indexing on selected features, are inadequate for retrieving cross-domain analogies from large multi-use knowledge bases. Blind or near-blind search techniques like spreading activation will be overwhelmed by combinatorial explosion as the search goes deeper into the KB. And indexing a large multi-use KB on salient features is impractical, largely because a feature that may be useful for retrieval in one task may be useless for another task. This thesis describes Knowledge-Directed Spreading Activation (KDSA), a method for retrieving analogies in a large semantic network. KDSA uses task-specific knowledge to guide a spreading activation search to a case or concept in memory that meets a desired similarity condition. The thesis also describes a specific instantiation of this method for the task of innovative design. KDSA has been validated in two ways. First, a theoretical model of knowledge base search demonstrates that KDSA is tractable for retrieving semantically distant analogies under a wide range of knowledge base configurations. Second, an implemented system that uses KDSA to find analogies for innovative design shows that the method is able to retrieve semantically distant analogies for a real task. Experiments with that system show trends as the knowledge base size grows that suggest the theoretical model's prediction of large knowledge base tractability is accurate. DE Computer Science. AR Hayes-Roth, Barbara. UP 9412. Revised: 941230. AN AAI9500318 AU Felch, John Edgar, Jr. TI PUBLIC PRICING POLICY AND THE VALUE OF INFORMATION (PRICING). IN Thesis (D.SC.)--THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, 1994, 265p. DD Order Number: AAI9500318. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 1723. AB Information is categorically different from the goods and services that became the products of the industrial age. Traditional goods and services have intrinsic value which deteriorates with time. The rules change when the commodity is information. Today, we find executives complaining of information overload (more is not better). The fundamental and unique characteristics of information as a commodity and its relative value are the focus of this research. Herein, we assert that information is an essential and co-equal resource, alongside the traditional three resources of production: people, money and material. We make one fundamental assumption: information has value. Determining what that value should be for any particular set of circumstances may require an entirely new theory of economics and quantitative equations. The current research is limited to a consideration of scientific and technical information (STI) in a government setting. Our hypothesis is that the value of STI is perceived differently by suppliers and consumers of STI. The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) provided the forum for this research. The establishment of prices for DTIC products (and services) is a complex, interdependent process. The nature of the relationships among the components of this process is the underlying model for this dissertation. A survey instrument containing 12 demographic data elements and 42 research questions was administered to a sample population of 142. Responses were received from 60 individuals. Three contributions are asserted. First, a formal definition of STI is offered in a context suitable for debate by researchers and practitioners. The second contribution is in understanding the perceived relationship between price and product, when that product is STI. The survey results did show that for seven specific STI products, DTIC staff perceived statistically significant more value than did the DTIC customers. The third claimed contribution is to increase the awareness and understanding of researchers, academicians, and practitioners that information, per se, is a fundamentally different class of resource. And, it requires fundamentally different theories and techniques to fully exploit its potential. DE Information Science. Computer Science. AR Harrald, John Richard. UP 9412. Revised: 941230. AN AAI9430447 AU Dabney, Daniel Patterson. TI STATISTICAL MODELING OF RELEVANCE JUDGMENTS FOR PROBABILISTIC RETRIEVAL OF AMERICAN CASE LAW. IN Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, 1993, 184p. DD Order Number: AAI9430447. SO Dissertation Abstracts International. Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 1727. AB This study investigates the use of models derived by logistic regression to overcome some of the difficulties encountered in the implementation of probabilistic document retrieval systems. It is often desirable for the ranking function of such a system to consider several different relevance clues. Many of these clues are not initially expressed in probabilistic terms, and cannot plausibly be assumed to satisfy the linked dependence assumptions required by classic models of probabilistic retrieval system design. A model derived by logistic regression can be used to combine such problematic clues into a single estimate of the relevance of candidate documents. The estimate may be used as the system's ranking function, or may be refined by applying likelihood ratios calculated from other relevance clues that are not problematic. The study illustrates the application of this method by using a logistic regression model to meld a variety of highly-dependent relevance clues into a single probability estimate. The clues considered are several different coefficients of association taken from a conventional vector-space retrieval model. The modeled probability estimate ranked system output more usefully than did any of the individual clues. In addition, the process of building the model shed light on the usefulness of individual clues, and identified a subset of the clues that contain nearly all of the non-redundant relevance information in the larger set. The study then considers a more complex subject domain: case-finding in American law. The case finding problem is considered in historical context, and the performance of commercial Boolean text-retrieval systems is evaluated. The study then shows how the logistic regression method could be applied to a wide variety of relevance clues available for case-finding, including the intellectual indexing embodied in the West Key Number System, citation vectors, text words, case pedigrees, and relative citation frequency. The study concludes by suggesting how the system might be applied in other subject domains. DE Library Science. Information Science. Law. AR Cooper, William S. UP 9412. Revised: 941230. ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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