Home | Browse | Search | Credits | About
Register | User Area | DL-Harvest | Help
DLIST

Reducing Indeterminism In Consultation: A Cognitive Model of User/Librarian Interactions

Chen, Hsinchun and Dhar, Vasant (1987) Reducing Indeterminism In Consultation: A Cognitive Model of User/Librarian Interactions. In Proceedings Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Seattle, WA.

Full text available as:
PDF - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF viewer.

Abstract

In information facilities such as libraries, finding documents that are relevant to a user query is difficult because of the indeterminism involved in the process by which documents are indexed, and the latitude users have in choosing terms to express a query on a particular topic. Reference librarians play an important support role in coping with this indeterminism, focusing user queries through an interactive dialog. Based on thirty detailed observations of user/librarian interactions obtained through a field experiment, we have developed a computational model designed to simulate the reference librarian. The consultation includes two phases. The first is handle search, where the user’s rough problem statement and a user stereotyping imposed by the librarian are used in determining the appropriate tools (handles). The second phase is document search, involving the search for documents within a chosen handle. We are collaborating with the university library for putting our model to use as an intelligent assistant for an online retrieval system.

EPrint Type:Conference Paper
Keywords:National Science Digital Library, NSDL, Artificial Intelligence Lab, AI Lab, University Libraries
Subjects:Libraries
Information Seeking Behaviors
Reference Services
ID Code:477
Deposited On:20 September 2004
Alternative Locations:http://ai.bpa.arizona.edu/go/papers.html
Eprint Statistics:View statistics for this eprint
Tell A Colleague:Tell a colleague about it.

1. Ashby, W. Ross. An Introduction to cybemetice. Methuen, London, 1973.

2. Bates, Marcia J. "Subject access in online catalog: a design model". Journal of the American Society of Information Science , ( 1986), (in press).

3. Cochrane, Pauline A.; Markey, Karen. "Preparing for the use of classification in online cataloging systems and in online catalogs". In formation Technology and Libraries 4, 2 (June 1985), 91-111.

4. Doszkocs, Tamas E. "CITE NLM: natural-language searching in an online catalog". Information Technology and Libraries 2, 4 (December 1983), 364-380.

6. Furnas, George W. et al. Statistical semantics: how can a computer use what people name things to guess what things people mean when they name things. Proceedings of the Human Factors in Computer Systems Conference, Gaithersburg, MD. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, March, 1982.

6. Harris, L. R. "User oriented data base query with the ROBOT natural language query system". International Journal of Man Machine Studies 0, ( 1977), 697-713.

7. Hendrix, G. G. et al. "Developing a natural language interface to complex data". ACM Transctions on Database Systems 3, ( 1978), 105-147.

8. Hjerppe, R. Project HYPERCATalog: visions and preliminary conceptions of an extended and enhanced catalog. Proceedings of JRFIS, 6th, Frascati, Italy, September, 1985, pp. 15-18.

9. Jacoby, J.; Slamecka, V.. Indexer consistency under minimal conditions. Documentation, Inc., Bethesda, MD, 1962.

10. Konolige, Kurt. User modelling, common-sense resoning & the belief-desire-intension paradigm. User Modelling Panel, Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Angeles, California, August, 1985.

11. Noerr, Peter L.; Bivins Noerr; Kathleen T. "Browse and navigate: an advance in database access method". Information processing and Management 21, 3(1985), 205-213.

12. Sager, N.. Natural Language In formation Bocessing: A Computer Grammar of English and Its Applications. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1981.

13. Sleeman, D. Student models in intelligent tutoring systems. User Modelling Panel, Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Angeles, California, August, 1985.

14. Stevens, Mary Elizabeth. Automatic Zndezing: A State- of-the-art Report. U.S.'Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 65.

15. Swartout, Bill. Explanation & the Role of the user model: how much will it help? User Modelling Panel, Proceedings of the Ninth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Los Angeles, California, August, 1985.

16. Walker, Donald. "The organization and use of information: Contributions of Information Science, Computational Lingustics and Artificial Intelligence". Journal of the American Society for In formation Science, (September 1981), 347-363.

17. Waltz, D. L. 'An English language question answering system for a large relational database. Communicatione of the ACM 21, ( 1978), 526-539.

EPrints dLIST, an open access archive for the Information Sciences, is supported by the School of Information Resources and Library Science and Learning Technologies Center, University of Arizona. Established in 2002, dLIST has a global Advisory Board and is a part of the Information Technology & Society Research Lab. Open Archives
Contact: Admin | Donate