Date: Fri, 14 Feb 86 09:20:29 est To: fox Subject: IRList Digest V2 #9 Status: RO IRList Digest Friday, 14 Feb 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 9 Today's Topics: Email - New address for ACM SIGIR Forum Co-editor Query - More information on Applied Artificial Intelligence? - Additional information on AAI Journal Call for Papers - Computer-Supported Cooperative Work Abstracts - Articles selected by Salton or Raghavan (pt. 3 of 3) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Bitnet%"RAGHAVAN@UREGINA1" 6-FEB-1986 14:24 Subj: my bitnet address [i.e., of the other ACM SIGIR Forum Editor -Ed] Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1986 13:21 CST Dear Ed, My BITNET address is shown above. ... With regards, Vijay ------------------------------ From: BATES%bbng.arpa@CSNET-RELAY Date: 5 Feb 1986 09:35-EST Sender: BATES%bbng.arpa@CSNET-RELAY Subject: more info please Can you please send me (or publish in the IRList digest) more info on the new journal of Applied AI? (For example, the editorial board, publishers, date of first issue, cost of subscription, etc.) Thanks, Lyn Bates ------------------------------ >From fox Sun Feb 9 17:51 EST 1986 Subject: Applied Artificial Intelligence - An Int. Journal Cc: seismo!bates@bbng.arpa More details beyond that of V2 #6 follow - Editor-in-Chief: Robert Trappl (U. of Vienna) Assoc. Editors: Howard Austin Ronald Brachman Stefano Cerri Larry Harris Makoto Nagao Wolfgang Wahlster William Woods Editorial Board: Luigi Carlucci Aiello Leonard Bolc Ernst Buchberger Jaime Carbonell Marie-Odile Cordier Helder Coelho Tatsuya Hayashi Werner Horn Margaret King Setsuo Ohsuga Tim O'Shea Ivan Plander Johannes Retti Erik Sandewall Luc Steels Harald Trost Submissions of Manuscripts: Authors should send 3 copies to Editor-in-Chief, Robert Trappl, Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Schottengasse 3, A-1010 Vienna, Austria By the way, the information in V2 #6 was garbled for some recipients so here it is again: New Journal: Applied Artificial Intelligence, An International Journal Publication Information: published quarterly starting March 86 Rates: $55/volume indiv ($88 institutional) plus $24 air mail postage Contacts: order with check or money order to - Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, Journals Dept., 79 Madison Ave. New York, New York 10016 Information: Elizabeth D'Costa, Circulation Mgr. (212) 725-1999 Aims and Scope: Applied Artificial Intelligence is intended to help exchange information about advances and experiences in this field among AI researchers. Furthermore, it will aid decision makers in industry and management to understand the accomplishments and limitations of the state-of-the-art of artificial intelligence. Research to be presented will focus on methodology, time-schedules, problems, work force strength, new tools, transfer of theoretical accomplishements to application problems, information exchange among concerned AI researchers and decision makers about the potential impact of their work on their decisions. ------------------------------ Date: 8 Feb 1986 1612-EST From: GREIF@mit-xx.ARPA Subject: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work: CALL FOR PAPERS PRELIMINARY CALL FOR PAPERS CONFERENCE ON COMPUTER-SUPPORTED COOPERATIVE WORK Austin, Texas December 3-5, 1986 sponsored by Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) Software Technology Program (STP) CONFERENCE CHAIR: Herb Krasner, MCC STP PROGRAM CHAIR: Irene Greif, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science PROGRAM COMMITTEE: John Seely Brown, Xerox PARC Christine Bullen, MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) Paul Cashman, DEC Bill Curtis, MCC STP Clarence A. Ellis, MCC STP Douglas C. Engelbart, McDonnell Douglas George Huber, University of Texas Thomas Malone, MIT Sloan School of Management Margrethe H. Olson, NYU Graduate School of Business Administration Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland Mark Stefik, Xerox PARC Lucy Suchman, Xerox PARC Terry Winograd, Stanford University LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS: Bryan Fugate, MCC STP CONFERENCE THEME -- SUGGESTED TOPICS This conference takes an interdisciplinary look at computer-supported cooperative work from technological, sociological, organizational, cognitive and task domain points of view. It grows from two past conferences: the DEC/MIT Workshop on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in August, 1984 and the MCC Interdisciplinary Design Symposium in May, 1985. The previous conferences drew participants from computer science, organization design, cognitive science, sociology, artificial intelligence and practical engineering disciplines. We hope to incorporate an even broader range of research and application perspectives on groups and group work at this meeting. We are soliciting new papers on the following representative topics: * Experiences with technology for cooperative work * Computer-based environments that support cooperation: co-authorship, project management, large-scale design of computer systems * Empirical studies of cooperation/teamwork * Impact of computer technology on group behavior, organizational structures and work practices * Underlying technologies: data bases, structured documents and hypertext, access controls and privacy * Theoretical models for analyzing group work: "roles", communication protocols, coordination constraints * Multi-media conferencing * Group decision support systems * Domain-specific requirements for computer-supported group work In order to encourage an informal and informative atmosphere, the conference's size will be limited. The program will include invited speakers, paper sessions, panel sessions and informal interest groups. We invite proposals for panels and discussion groups as well as papers. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS IMPORTANT DATES Submission deadline: July 1, 1986 Acceptance Notification: Sept 1, 1986 Final Version Due: Oct 1, 1986 Conference Date: Dec 3-5, 1986 Fifteen (15) copies of a double-spaced extended abstract of 10-12 pages in length should be submitted to: Dr. Irene Greif MIT Laboratory for Computer Science 545 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 phone (617)- 253-5987 e-mail: greif@mit-xx.lcs.mit.edu People who have limited access to copiers, or for whom overseas airmail costs will be a burden, should submit only one copy. Suggestions for panels and interest group meetings should be 1-2 pages long. Submit these short proposals either by sending fifteen copies to the address above, or by mailing one copy to the email address above. A conference proceedings will be available at the meeting and published by Ablex. COOPERATING SOCIETIES: Software Psychology Society College of Information Systems of The Institute for Management Sciences ACM SigOA (pending) ACM SigCHI (pending) ACM SigSOFT (pending) IEEE Computer Society (pending) For more information call Barbara Smith, MCC STP at 512-834-3336 or by netmail to basmith@mcc.arpa ------------------------------ From: "V.J. Raghavan" Date: Fri, 24 Jan 86 19:20:08 cst To: IRList%vpi.csnet@CSNET-RELAY Subject: submission to IR list [last part of long set of abstracts - Ed] .op .pl75 blurbs.vr ABSTRACTS (Chosen by G. Salton or V. Raghavan from 1983 issues of journals in the retrieval area) 22. THE USE OF COMPUTER-MONITORED DATA IN INFORMATION SCIENCE AND COMMUNICATION RESEARCH Ronald E. Rice Annenberg School of Communications, University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA 90089 Christine L. Borgman Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 As computer-based information retrieval and communication systems become more commonplace, researchers have a greater opportunity to evaluate the uses and impacts of new communication technologies. The systems and the kinds of data now available are discussed along with advantages and disadvantages of using computer-monitored data. (JASIS, Vol. 34(4); 247-256; 1983) 23. MODERN ALGEBRA AND INFORMATION SCIENCE Virgil Diodato School of Library and Information Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201 Mathematical concepts used in modern algebra are useful for modeling aspects of information systems. One such aspect is the syndetic structure employed in information retrieval systems. The equivalence classes of modern algebra can represent the See Also components of traditional library catalogs, while partial orderings and mappings assist in modeling syndetics in more sophisticated systems, such as thesauri. Utilizing the full strength of algebraic techniques should provide improvements to the models suggested in this article. (JASIS, VOL 34(4); 257-261; 1983) 24. AUTOMATIC QUERY FORMULATIONS IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL G. Salton, C. Buckley, and E.A. Fox Department of Computer Science Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 Modern information retrieval systems are designed to supply relevant information in response to requests received from the user population. In most retrieval environments the search requests consist of keywords, or index terms, interrelated by appropriate Boolean operators. Since it is difficult for untrained users to generate effective Boolean search requests, trained search intermediaries are normally used to translate original statements of user need into useful Boolean search formulations. Methods are introduced in this study which reduce the role of the search intermediaries by making it possible to generate Boolean search formulations completely automatically from natural language statements provided by the system patrons. Frequency considerations are used automatically to generate appropriate term combinations as well as Boolean connectives relating the terms. Methods are covered to produce automatic query formulations both in a standard Boolean logic system, as well as in an extended Boolean system in which the strict interpretation of the connectives is relaxed. Experimental results are supplied to evaluate the effectiveness of the automatic query formulation process, and methods are described for applying the automatic query formulation process in practice. (JASIS, VOL. 34(4); 262-280; 1983) 25. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ONLINE SEARCHING Peter J. Vigil Health Sciences Library, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 Online searching is a dynamic process requiring an interactive and iterative dialogue to fully utilize its potential. However, such an interaction results in communication barriers at the human-computer interface due to demands and limits of human memory and human information processing. An algorithmic method of searching, using Boolean negation to eliminate redundancy and reduce the cognitive strain of this barrier is proposed. Experimental data testing the efficacy of the method are also presented. Furthermore, the correlation of differences in cognitive processes to the searcher's comprehension of the system and searching behavior are explored. (JASIS, Vol. 34(4); 281-287; 1983) 26. POSSIBLE IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING ON ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING Douglas S. Price Deputy Director, National Commission on Libraries and Information Science 1717 K. Street, N.W., Suite 601, Washington, DC 20036 The following discussion is based upon the assumption that in the future, a substantial portion of scholarly material will be published only - or at least primarily - in electronic form. I will not attempt to predict a date or estimate the proportion, but electronic publishing of scholarly articles will certainly become significant in the not-too-distant future. When it does, there will be some interesting ramifications, which I have not seen discussed previously. It is to these I am addressing this discussion. (JASIS, Vol. 34(4); 288; 1983) 27. USER ADAPTATION IN INTERACTIVE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL Charles T. Meadow DIALOG Information Services, Inc., 3460 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 A study was conducted of users of an interactive database search system in order to observe and measure how they adapted to the system, which was new to them. Subjects were selected from three categories of prior computer experience and each was assigned to use one of three search languages which varied in complexity or logical power. All searched the same database of newspaper clippings. Useer performance appears to be a function of how well suited the language is to the user and the problem being addressed, rather than either language complexity or user experience, alone. A major conclusion is that languages should be designed to suit recognizable classes of users, rather than all users as a whole. (JASIS, Vol. 34(4); 289-291; 1983) 28. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL: A SEQUENTIAL LEARNING PROCESS Abraham Bookstein Graduate Library School, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 The fundamental problem of information retrieval is how to decide, on the basis of clues, each of which is an imperfect indicator of document relevance, which documents to retrieve and the order in which to present them. The most satisfying conceptual approaches have been based on probabilistic decision theoretic models. However, those previously used make a decision about a single document at a time, and extend this to retrieve multiple documents by ignoring interdocument interaction. The purpose of this article is to present decision-theoretic models which intrinsically include the multiple retrieval case. In particular, we argue that information retrieval should be envisioned as a process, in which the information retrieval system responds to a request by presenting documents to the patron in a sequence, gathering feedback as the process proceeds, and using this information to modify future retrievals. A retrieval strategy that naturally results from this model is described. Two examples are examined in detail. (JASIS, Vol. 34(5); 331-342; 1983) 29. USAGE PATTERNS OF AN ONLINE SEARCH SYSTEM Michael D. Cooper School of Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 This article examines the usage patterns of the ELHILL retrieval program of the National Library of Medicine's MEDLARS system. Based on a sample of 6759 searches, the study analyzes the frequency of various commands and command options, classifies messages issued by the system, and investigates searcher error rates. The article concludes with suggestions for improving and redesigning both the program and query language. (JASIS, Vol. 34(5); 343-349; 1983) 30. A CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF RETRIEVAL PATTERNS AMONG BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATABASES A Neil Yerkey School of Information and Library Studies, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260 Searchers of bibliographical databases are faced with a multitude of choices, but very few clues, in developing precise search strategies. This study attempts to discover subject patterns and clusters among databases in order to provide clues about differences and similarities among them. Descriptors were taken at random from seven subject categories in the ERIC thesaurus and used as search terms on Bibliographic Retrieval Services' CROSS database. The resulting 1,830,312 postings from 54 databases were analyzed in two ways: (1) an Expectation Ratio was computed which allowed ranking databases in order of their relative responses to the subject searches; (2) a cluster analysis was conducted to discover possible subject relationships among databses. The results show five large clusters: Technology, Life Sciences, Bibliography, Business and Industry, and Education; and 12 well-defined subclustesr. It also shows several dimensions which cut across clusters, such as Research and Social and Economic Enterprise, and indicates that there are nonobvious similarities and differences among databases which may provide clues to more effective search strategy development. (JASIS, Vol. 34(5); 350-355; 1983) 31. DOCUMENT CLUSTERING, USING MACRO RETRIEVAL TECHNIQUES Thomas R. Kochtanek Department of Information Science, University of MIssouri-Columbia, 113B Stewart Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 An algorithmic approach for generating a loosely structured set of documents based upon references and citations is described and initially tested. The technique is based upon a small subset (or single relevant document) of known relevant documents which form the basis of the network of structured references and citations. Suggestions for improvement and refinement point out potentially ripe research avenues for investigating the identification of relevant documents pertaining to emerging interdisciplinary subject areas. (JASIS, Vol. 34(5); 356-359; 1983) ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************