Discusses agent technology within educational settings and describes two information systems, SMILE (Solution, Mapping, Intelligent, Learning, Environment) and AIMS (Agent based Information Management System) that use concept mapping to address issues including adaptive learner support, problem solving, information navigation, information…

Focuses on developing a map display for information retrieval. Through an examination of relationships among visual displays, information retrieval, and browsing, advantages of visual displays for information retrieval are characterized. Examples of the map displays show that they can be used as overview tools and access/exploration tools, and…

Discusses intelligent user interfaces, through which a user may query for information; explains the different types of intelligent online search assistants, or agents, which are used to support these interfaces. Describes several different agent systems. Concludes by discussing the current state of agents in information retrieval, especially as…

Discusses the concept of a digital library and the utility of space/time referencing. Describes the unified space/time/keyword/format search and retrieval and indexing system of the ISLA (Information System for Los Angeles) at the University of Southern California. Focuses on the practical application of space/time referencing and methods of…

Offers four brief descriptions of research and class assignments that incorporate use of the World Wide Web, including resume writing and the Web; team research projects; "hunts" for local Web sites to introduce the World Wide Web; and using the Web to get updates or confirm accuracy. (SR)

Reviews the literature of the Dublin Core Workshop Series which focuses on development of metadata elements that facilitate discovery of textual and nontextual resources in a networked environment. Topics addressed include background on Internet searching and the Dublin Core Workshops, characteristics of the literature, key documents, key…

Provides an overview of online systems and search engines, highlighting search (relationships between terms and interpretation of words), browse, and Web search engine capabilities, iterative searches, canned or stored queries, vocabulary browsing, delivery of full source documents, simple and advanced user interfaces, and global access. Notes…

Discusses ways to apply traditional search strategies to online information seeking. Highlights include explore and browse search features; hierarchical features (knowledge/topic/subject trees, categories, distribution lists); analytical search features; and the process approach. (AEF)

Presents adaptations and tests undertaken to allow an information retrieval system to forecast the likelihood of avalanches on a particular day; the forecasting process uses historical data of the weather and avalanche conditions for a large number of days. Describes a method for adapting these data into a form usable by a text-based IR system and…

Academic clientele expect their library to select the best information and organize it effectively for their personal consumption. Some answers to a hierarchical approach are customization through a MyLibrary feature, a role-based vertical view, and a powerful search engine all built on a rich resource database. Each is discussed. (AEF)

Examines consequences for information control of the tendency of occurrences of content-bearing terms to appear together, or clump. Properties of previously defined clumping measures are reviewed and extended, and significance of these measures for devising retrieval strategies discussed. A new type of clumping measure, which extends the earlier…

Traditional methods of authority present in a print environment are lacking on the Internet, and, even when occasionally present, are of questionable veracity. A formal model and evaluative criteria are suggested and explained to provide a means for accurately ascribing cognitive authority in a networked environment; the model is unique in its…

The resolution power of a key is its ability, in the context of other keys for a given request, to increase query performance. This article studies the statistical properties of search keys, methods of characterizing the resolution power of keys automatically, and effects keys of varying resolution power have on retrieval effectiveness. (AEF)

Describes the design and implementation of TACHIR, a tool for the automatic construction of hypertexts for information retrieval. Topics include a three-level conceptual model; navigating among documents, index terms, and concepts; the use of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and the World Wide Web; evaluation of TACHIR; and future possibilities.…

Demonstrates a method of visual analysis which takes advantage of the pooling technique of topic-document set creation in the TREC collection. Describes the procedures used to create the initial visual fields, and their respective treatments as vectors without stemming and vectors with stemming; discusses results of these treatments and…