Describes the characteristics of natural languages that hinder the optimal organization and accessing of networked resources, focusing on the semantic mapping processes utilizing thesauri or metadata. Considers future information retrieval system design, especially networked retrieval and natural language, and gives an example of problems in…

Discusses the inclusion of contextual information in indexing and retrieval systems to improve results and the ability to carry out text analysis by means of linguistic knowledge. Presents research that investigated whether discourse variables have an impact on information and retrieval and classification algorithms. (Author/LRW)

Discussion of ways to promote sites on the World Wide Web focuses on how search engines work and how they retrieve and identify sites. Appropriate Web links for submitting new sites and for Internet marketing are included. (LRW)

Introduces a rotation and scale invariant log-polar wavelet texture feature for image retrieval. The underlying feature extraction process involves a log-polar transform followed by an adaptive row shift invariant wavelet packet transform. Experimental results show that this rotation and scale invariant wavelet feature is quite effective for image…

Discusses rule-based information filtering systems and user profiles that express the user's information filtering policy. Compares the effectiveness of two alternative rule-based filtering methods: stereotype-based rules, where users are assigned to a group of similar users; and personal-based rules, where each user has his/her own personal…

Discusses latent semantic indexing (LSI) that would allow search engines to reduce the dimension of the document space by mapping it into a space spanned by conceptual indices. Topics include vector space models; singular value decomposition (SVD); unitary operators; the Haar transform; and new algorithms. (Author/LRW)

Examines query expansion during query translation in cross language information retrieval and develops a general framework for inferential information retrieval in two particular contexts: using fuzzy logic and probability theory. Obtains evaluation formulas that are shown to strongly correspond to those used in other information retrieval models.…

Investigates the influence of index term distributions and indexing exhaustivity on the document space within a visual information retrieval environment called DARE (Distance Angle Retrieval Environment). Discusses results that demonstrate the importance of term distribution and exhaustivity on the density of document spaces and their implications…

Explores aspects of data fusion (DF) for information retrieval (IR) using a set of data from the Fifth International Conference on Text Retrieval (TREC5). Derives an equation for effective DF based on a geometric model and shows that the performance of a pair of IR schemes may be approximated by a quadratic polynomial. (Author/LRW)

Explored how images were used in a social science research project and analyzed the use of verbs to identify three functions that images fill. Argues that the separation between finding documents and using them is artificial, and explores the use of image documents to help integrate information retrieval more closely with knowledge generation.…

Explains the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting and its impact on digital libraries and information retrieval by transferring metadata from one server to another in a network of information systems. Highlights include data providers; service providers; value-added services; Dublin Core metadata; data transfer;…

Discussion of human-computer interaction and planned action focuses on the belief that it is impossible to consider an action without an a priori plan, even according to the phenomenological position taken for granted by the situated action theory. Reports results of a quasi-experiment that focused on plan deviation within an information seeking…

Discusses the potential sources of knowledge for customizing transportable natural language query systems, including sophisticated dictionaries, database content, and human database experts. A rough quantification of the importance of each source is provided. (17 references) (Author/CLB)

Investigates the performance of a character-based Chinese text retrieval scheme in which monogram keys and bigram keys are encoded into document signatures. Tests and verifies the theoretical predictions of the optimal weight assignments and the minimal false hit rate in experiments using a real Chinese corpus for disyllabic queries of different…

Describes "Synoname," the Getty Museum's computer program that matches varying versions of personal names for research purposes. Reports that the program uses an ordered algorithm sequence for pattern matching that includes both character- and word-matching techniques. Concludes that the technique can approach near-total accuracy at the…