Information Retrieval List Digest 371 (September 8, 1997) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-371 IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 September 8, 1997 Volume XIV, Number 33 Issue 371 ********************************************************** Missing Issues 367, 368, & 369 will be sent this week. II. JOBS 1. West Group: Research Staff 2. Universite de Montreal: EBSI: Full-time professor III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. Technology and Management in Library and Information Services 2. Journal of Library and Archival Security, CFP 3. JASIS, Call for Papers B. Meetings 1. Digital Libraries'98 Conference 2. AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium on Intelligent Text Summarization ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Jack G. Conrad d) Re: West Group: Research Staff West Group, a leading publisher and provider of information retrieval services to the legal and business community seeks qualified applicants to expand it research staff. The Computer Science Research Department at West Group currently consists of 12 persons and is located jointly in Rochester, NY and Eagan, MN. The department's primary research interests include information retrieval, natural language processing, machine learning, performance evaluation, data visualization, and data compression. Principle duties would include the design, construction and testing of prototypes of retrieval, extraction and categorization systems in the context of large data environments such as Westlaw. Applicants should have a graduate degree in Computer Science, or related field, with a focus in IR, NLP, ML, or HCI. AI backgrounds in Knowledge Representation are welcomed. Excellent UNIX, C/C++ skills; OOA/OOD experience an advantage; Component Technologies skills a plus. West Group offers excellent growth opportunities, a competitive salary, and comprehensive benefits. West is an equal opportunity employer. Send resume to: or via e-mail to: pjackson@lcp.com Peter Jackson West Group 610 Opperman Drive Eagan, MN 55123 ********** II.2. Fr: Guy Louise Re: Universite de Montreal: EBSI: Full-time professor L'Ecole de bibliotheconomie et des sciences de l'information (EBSI) de la Faculte des arts et des sciences de l'Universite de Montreal is seeking a full-time professor (at the assistant level) in the area of strategic information management. DESCRIPTION: The successful candidate will teach at the graduate level (master and Ph.D. programs) in the following areas: competitive intelligence, corporate information systems, corporate information policies, and research methods in information science. He or she will supervise master's and doctoral research and may also teach at the undergraduate level. He or she will conduct research in the broad context of information science. QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. (completed or nearing completion) in information science, management (preferably management of information systems) or in a related discipline. Aptitude for teaching and research. Excellent knowledge of French. SALARY: Based on the Universite de Montreal collective agreement. Starting date January 1st, 1998 Applicants should send a curriculum vitae, with names, addresses and phone numbers of three referees, before October 1st, 1997 to: Dr Gilles Deschatelets Directeur Ecole de bibliotheconomie et des sciences de l'information Universite de Montreal C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville Montreal (Quebec) H3C 3J7 CANADA In concordance with the requirements of Immigration Canada, priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. The Universite de Montreal is committed to an employment equity program which includes special measures to ensure diversity among its faculty and staff. All teaching activities at the Universite de Montreal are conducted in French. For more information on EBSI, please consult our Web site: http://tornade.ere.umontreal.ca/~carmellu/ebsi/ ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: GSLIS Publications Office Re: Technology and Management in Library and Information Services Important New Book: Technology and Management in Library and Information Services by F. W. Lancaster andBeth Sandore ISBN 0-87845-099-8 ". . . provides the practitioner (and the student) a valuable source of the most recent research on information technology and libraries." --William F. Birdsall Director, Dalhousie University Library "This book provides a good and revealing overview of technology in libraries . . . [and] will also make interesting reading for library managers and others involved in the introduction of new technology." --David Raitt Editor, The Electronic Library In this major new book, F. W. Lancaster and Beth Sandore deal with the logical intersection of "technology" and "management" in the context of libraries and other information centers. The integration of technology into library operations has greatly changed the manner in which tasks are accomplished and by whom. Technology and Management in Library and Information Services focuses on the management of technology rather than the technology itself, since it is the manner in which new tools are used that will make the difference in contemporary libraries. It is a book which will be useful for managers of library and related information services as well as students who will now be facing these new technologies throughout the professional workforce. F. Wilfrid Lancaster is Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of ten earlier books, six of which have received national awards from the American Society for Information Science and the American Library Association, and the editor of many others. Since 1986 he has been editor of Library Trends. Beth Sandore is Coordinator for Imaging Projects and Associate Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of a number of articles on technology in libraries and systems evaluation. The Publications Office Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois puboff@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu http://edfu.lis.uiuc.edu/puboff ********** III.A.2. Fr: Chris Brown-Syed Re: Journal of Library and Archival Security, CFP CALL FOR PAPERS JOURNAL OF LIBRARY AND ARCHIVAL SECURITY Library and Archival Security is a quarterly, refereed journal, devoted to all aspects of security in libraries, archives, and other information centers. Submissions should apply to "libraries and archives" broadly defined to include special libraries and information centers, as well as "virtual" or "digital" collections. The Journal welcomes submissions of theoretical or practical importance, including full length articles, book and software reviews, and reports. Submissions may be devoted to problems of physical security, including theft detection and prevention, related inventory methods, disaster prevention and recovery, security systems and equipment, issues of access to collections and incidents involving public behavior and safety in libraries. As well, articles dealing with network and communication security, the security, integrity, and confidentiality of electronic records, library Internet sites, local library automation systems, and on the legal and ethical implications of library record keeping are especially welcome. Papers dealing with recovery methods, such as deacidification, salvage of fire and water-damaged materials, and the conservation and preservation of library and archival materials will also be considered. Authors are requested to submit printed copies of any item for consideration, single-sided, double-spaced, either on standard Letter-sized or A4 paper. Electronic copies should be submitted on 3.5 inch floppy diskette copies, clearly labeled "for DOS/Windows", "for Macintosh", or "for UNIX" computers, and should be accompanied by printed versions. Documents set using Microsoft Word are preferred. Those wishing to submit items for immediate consideration using electronic mail are asked to send plain ASCII text copies as part of the body of the email message (not as attachments). While email submissions are welcome, authors are asked to forward properly typeset printed and diskette copies by mail. Submissions and queries about content should be directed to the Editor: Christopher Brown-Syed, PhD. Library and Information Science Program, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48202-3939, USA. Phone: +1 (313) 577-0503 Fax: +1 (313) 577-7563 Email: csyed@lisp.purdy.wayne.edu The Journal of Library and Archival Security is undergoing editorial changes. Detailed instructions for authors, together with information regarding the Journal's Editorial Board, Editor, and Publisher, will shortly be made available via the World Wide Web. Library and Archival Security is a publication of the Haworth Press Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, New York, 13904-9981, USA, to whom all subscription queries should be addressed. ********** III.A.3. Fr: Zorana Ercegovac Re: JASIS, Call for Papers CALL FOR PAPERS Special Topic Issue of _JASIS_ "Integrating Multiple Overlapping Metadata Standards" The next Special Topics Issue of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS) is scheduled to come out in 1999 on the topic of Integrating Multiple Overlapping Metadata Standards. The guest editor for this special issue will be Zorana Ercegovac who is with the Department of the Library and Information Science, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the InfoEN Associates (www.lainet.com/infoen/). As more heterogeneous objects, including text, become available electronically, people have just started to look at different metadata standards that had independently evolved to identify and describe these objects (e.g., geospatial data such as imagery archives and remotely-sensed datasets; museum and cultural information repositories). These metadata standards (e.g., TEI, FGDC, AACR2) come from different disciplines and reflect different perspectives and traditional cultures. Only recently have we started to "mesh" these different content metadata standards and converge into superstandard schemes. Example is the collaboration between Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Metadata and Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR 2nd ed.) standards. Both standards have a capability to describe cartographic materials but from different perspectives: while, for example, FGDC focuses on coordinate access points, projection, and other spatial, temporal, security, and data quality attributes, AACR2 is entering maps under the author main heading. Similar differences exist in the areas of visual and archival representation. Specific topics of interest, but are not limited to, the following: -- Metadata elements for the representation of digital repositories including networked resources; for example, which elements should be included in a metadata record for images and spatial datasets in general? Which data elements should be included at different levels of detail? -- Federal metadata standards for data-intensive application areas -- Integrating multiple overlapping metadata standards (e.g., AACR2, FGDC) -- Designing a superstandard scheme, or a catalog, of metadata entries -- Multiple levels of metadata for multiple user needs -- Integration of data and its metadata -- Economic implications for the integration of metadata standards for multimedia and heterogeneous digital datasets -- Application-apecific metadata projects from academia, research laboratories, governmental organizations, and industry Inquiries may be made to the guest editor at zercegov@ucla.edu Manuscript submission (four copies of full articles) should be addressed to: Zorana Ercegovac, Ph. D. Department of Library and Information Science Graduate School of Education & Information Studies 222 GSLIS Building University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 (310)206-9361 (work) (310)391-3923 (fax/voice) zercegov@ucla.edu http://www/gslis.ucla.edu/LIS/faculty/zercegov/ercegovac.html The deadline for sumbitting manuscripts for consideration for publication in this special issue is April 30, 1998. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a select panel of referees, and those accepted will be published in a special issue of _JASIS_. Original artwork and a single copy of the copyright release form will be required for all accepted papers. A copy of the call for papers will be available on the World Wide Web as is further information about _JASIS_, at http://www.asis.org/. Zorana Ercegovac, Ph. D. Dept of Library and Information Science Graduate School of Education & Information Studies 222 GSLIS Bldg University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521 Tel: 1-310-206-9361 Email: zercegov@ucla.edu http://www.gslis.ucla.edu/LIS/faculty/zercegov/ercegovac.html ********** III.B.1. Fr: Digital Libraries'98 Re: Digital Libraries'98 Conference Digital Libraries '98 The Third ACM Conference on Digital Libraries Pittsburgh, PA, USA, June 23-26, 1998 (Sponsored by ACM through SIGIR and SIGLINK) Digital libraries will likely figure amongst the most important and influential institutions of the 21st Century. Long a dream, the early prognostications of visionaries such as Bush, Nelson, and Licklider of large-scale, sustainable digital libraries are progressively becoming a reality with the initiation of major DL projects at national levels. Future digital libraries will not only improve access to the world's knowledge dramatically, but also act as 'collaboratories' out of which new knowledge is crafted and refined by widely-distributed teams and organizations -- knowledge that right from conception is fully interconnected with previous work. But daunting challenges stand in the way. No amount of rhetoric can finesse the plethora of thorny issues that need addressing. While visions are cheap -- useable, scaleable, sustainable, and interoperable solutions demand intensive collaboration from researchers in many disciplines, and substantial commitments from imaginative and resourceful practitioners. Olympian though they may be, digital library initiatives will not escape the agonizing ground-level tradeoffs that characterize any large-scale practical endeavor. So what are the key outstanding problems? *How can we best begin to address them? *What are the major competing paradigms that claim value and vie for our support? *How can the digital library community work together in synergetic ways, and avoid the endless fragmentation and oneupmanship that so often afflicts rapidly evolving fields? At Digital Libraries '98, we will build on the foundation laid by earlier conferences in this series, as well as the hard work of the many individuals who helped bring our field to fruition. We will strive to unite all players that have a stake in the future of digital libraries: librarians, computer scientists, social scientists, administrators, ... academic, government and commercial organizations, ... tool builders, evaluators and users. We will continue to foster their participation as on-going members of the digital library community. Thus we invite you to participate and contribute to this very important field. Please send us your ideas for planning, your papers and other proposals for participation -- and most of all for DL98 -- be there! Held immediately following Hypertext '98, Digital Libraries '98 will provide a common setting for researchers, practicing professionals and students to share experiences and to present results about system construction, human-computer interaction, hypertext, information retrieval, digital librarianship, digital identifiers and many other topics related to the field of digital libraries. The conference attracts distinguished attendees from a diverse range of fields. Digital Libraries '98 will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of exciting and original developments in digital libraries through a variety of formats. The Proceedings of Digital Libraries '98 will be published by ACM Press. TECHNICAL PROGRAM: Digital Libraries '98 will provide a common setting for researchers and practicing professionals to share experiences and compare notes about authoring, publishing, system construction, human-computer interaction, copyright issues, digital library services, electronic journals, evaluation, and many other topics. Attendees come with backgrounds in computing, library science, psychology, literature, sociology, engineering, law, medicine -- many different fields -- and we warmly invite your participation. Digital Libraries '98 will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of exciting and original developments in digital libraries through several formats: papers, panels, short papers, demonstrations, posters, tutorials, and workshops. Topics for the conference encompass anything of relevance to the field of Digital Libraries. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: DL projects, user experience, DL technologies, search engines, name spaces, indexing, collection development and management, user support, digital librarianship, requirements for DLs, economics of DLs, lessons learned, collaborative libraries, information summarization and visualization, metadata issues, multimedia collections and many others. CRITICAL DATES: 15 Jan 98: Papers due, Proposals for Panels, Workshops, and Tutorials due. 31 Mar 98: Notification of acceptance for Papers, Panels, Workshops, and Tutorials. 13 Apr 98: Short Papers due. Proposals for Posters and Demos due. 20 Apr 98: Final versions of accepted papers due. Notification of acceptance for Short Papers, Posters, and Demos. PROPRIETARY OR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: The purpose of scientific meetings like DL98 is to share and disseminate information; papers which make claims that are not fully disclosed or that assert that their results may not be used in other work should not be considered acceptable. Therefore, your submission should contain no proprietary or confidential material and should cite no proprietary or confidential publications. CONFIRMATION OF RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS: Receipt of all submitted proposals will be confirmed by communique with the submitting author. If you do not receive such confirmation (probably most will be email) then assume the worst and check in. We will continue to send you confirmations -- until we hear back from you. FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION, CONTACT: CONFERENCE COMMITTEE Conference Chair Robert M. Akscyn Knowledge Systems rma@ks.com Program Chair Ian Witten Professor of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ ihw@rimu.cs.waikato.ac.nz Associate Conference Chair David L. Hicks Knowledge Systems hicks@ks.com Publications Chair Frank Shipman Texas A&M University shipman@csdl.cs.tamu.edu JOINING THE TEAM: If you would like to be a member of the DL98 conference team, we would heartily welcome your help. There are many opportunities to contribute to the success of the conference. Your help would be much appreciated. ********** III.B.2. Fr: Dragomir R. Radev Re: AAAI 1998 Spring Symposium on Intelligent Text Summarization INTELLIGENT TEXT SUMMARIZATION http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~radev/aaai-sss98-its With the proliferation of online textual resources, it has become very difficult to find information of interest. Improving access to online information includes finding relevant documents (Information Retrieval) and presenting only information that matches the user's interests (Text Summarization). In the recent very successful workshop on Intelligent Scalable Text Summarization at the ACL/EACL conference, papers focused largely on statistical approaches. In this symposium, we aim to discuss also the strengths of other, symbolic/rule-based, techniques. We particularly welcome contributions that address some of the fundamental issues underlying summarization: what is a summary? What is an abstract? How can one evaluate the quality of a summary? The symposium will include formal presentations and discussions of existing techniques and open problems. Using input from potential participants, the program committee will present a series of questions to which attendees will be encouraged to suggest approaches and solutions. Sample topics: - Knowledge Representation Issues - AI and Statistical Techniques - Discourse Analysis and Discourse Planning - Concise Text Generation - Summarization of Multiple Documents - Generation of Updates - Architectures for Summarization - Multilingual and Multimodal Summarization - User Modeling - Scalability - Evaluation of Text Summarization. Potential participants should submit one of the following: o Full technical paper (PostScript, 11-point font, up to 5000 words). o Statement of interest (up to 1000 words): - description of an ongoing research effort, - position statement, - description of a problem to be discussed, - proposal for an activity related to text summarization that can take place at the symposium, - description of a completed summarization system, or - descriptions of tools, corpora, or other resources, especially if they can be shared with others. o Description of a demonstration or video. Participants are encouraged to include URLs related to text summarization (bibliographies, papers, projects, tools, corpora). Selection will be made in the following order: 1. people who present papers (one person per paper) 2. other presenters 3. collaborators of the above 4. people with strong statements of interest 5. others as space permits. Submissions for the symposia are due on October 24, 1997. Notification of acceptance will be given by November 14, 1997. Materials to be included in the working notes of the symposium must be received by January 17, 1998. More information is available at the AAAI symposium Web site: Send all submissions electronically to radev@cs.columbia.edu If you are unsure whether your file will print at our site, please submit four days before the deadline in order to receive a confirmation. Dragomir Radev (co-chair) Department of Computer Science Columbia University 1214 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY 10027-7003, USA Phone: 1-212-939-7118 Fax: 1-212-666-0140 ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests and submissions to: nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Editorial Staff: Nancy Gusack nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Cliff Lynch (emeritus) cliff@cni.org The IRLIST Archives is set up for anonymous FTP. Using anonymous FTP via the host ftp.dla.ucop.edu, the files will be found in the directory /data/ftp/pub/irl, stored in subdirectories by year (e.g., data/ftp/pub/irl/1993). Search or browse archived IR-L Digest issues on the Web at: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/idom/irlist/ These files are not to be sold or used for commercial purposes. Contact Nancy Gusack for more information on IRLIST. 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