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…

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…

Reviews several mechanisms to support navigation in hypertext following a brief discussion of the phenomena of disorientation in hyperspace. Categorizes ways to support navigation in terms of the following: solutions regarding the tools to support navigation; solutions regarding interface and navigation metaphors; and solutions regarding hardware…

This paper describes an evaluation of the Kea automatic keyphrase extraction algorithm. Tools that automatically identify keyphrases are desirable because document keyphrases have numerous applications in digital library systems, but are costly and time consuming to manually assign. Keyphrase extraction algorithms are usually evaluated by…

Discusses the role of intelligent agents in facilitating the seeking and retrieval of information in Web-based library environments. Highlights include an overview of agents; current applications in library domains; an agent-based model for libraries; the design of interface agents; and implications for library policy and digital collections.…

Reviews ConSearch 3.0, a product that provides flexible searching of electronic files, allowing the location of related meanings as well as exact matches. ConSearch 3.0 differs from other file retrieval approaches by relating words in search phrases of questions to the "meaning" of the words, which are stored in a "conceptual…

Reports on a conference workshop that addressed Visual Information Retrieval Interfaces (VIRIs). Topics include evaluation methods; task dimension for evaluating VIRIs; efforts to fund European development of VIRIs; metrics, including cosine vector; navigation among documents; and interactions with users. (LRW)

Examines the effects of database assistance on clinical problem solving across three cohorts of medical students and two database interfaces. Discusses the relationship between personal domain knowledge and problem solving, personal domain knowledge and database searching, and comparisons of different interface styles in information retrieval…

This paper examines inclusive design delivery through interface design, with a particular focus on access to healthcare resources for seniors. The goal of the project was to examine how seniors are able to access drug information using two different online systems. In the existing retrieval system, pills are identified using a standard search…

This paper describes basic types of World Wide Web pages and presents design criteria for page layout based on principles of visual literacy. Discussion focuses on pages that present information in the following styles: billboard; directory/index; textual; and graphics. Problems and solutions in Web page construction are explored according to…

Reviews the development of research and evaluation in information retrieval. Highlights include the Cranfield projects concerning recall and precision, the Medlars experiment that focused on relevance, TREC (Text Retrieval Conference), evaluation versus understanding, interface versus functionality, document length, and terms and user interaction.…

Examines a selection of innovative search tools that attempt to solve specific problems in searching. Topics include search difficulties, including controlled vocabularies and keyword searching; retrieval issues, including relevancy ranking; document discrimination problems; creating search tools for specific audiences; and interface design,…

Discussion of user interfaces to information retrieval systems focuses on interfaces that incorporate thesauri as part of their searching and browsing facilities. Discusses research literature related to information searching behavior, information retrieval interface evaluation, search term selection, and query expansion; and compares thesaurus…

Describes an algorithm for computer generation of hierarchical indexes for document collections. The resulting index, when presented with a graphical interface, provides users with a view of a document collection that permits general browsing and informal search activities via an access method that requires no keyboard entry or prior knowledge of…

Includes abstracts of 18 special interest group (SIG) sessions. Highlights include natural language processing, information science and terminology science, classification, knowledge-intensive information systems, information value and ownership issues, economics and theories of information science, information retrieval interfaces, fuzzy thinking…