Search

Purpose – In editorial peer review systems of journals, one does not always accept the best papers. Due to different human perceptions, the evaluation of papers by peer review (for a journal) can be different from the impact that a paper has after its publication (measured by number of citations received) in this or another journal. This system (and corresponding problems) is similar to the information retrieval process in a documentary system. Also there, one retrieves not always the most relevant documents for a certain topic. This is so because the topic is described in the command language of the documentary system and this command does not always completely cover the "real topic" that one wants to describe. This paper aims to address this issue. Design/methodology/approach – Based on this statement classical information retrieval evaluation techniques were applied to the evaluation of peer review systems. Basic in such an information retrieval evaluation are the notions of precision and recall and the precision-recall-curve. Such notions are introduced here for the evaluation of peer review systems. Findings – The analogues of precision and recall are defined and their curve constructed based on peer review data from the journal Angewandte Chemie – International Edition and on citation impact data of accepted papers by this journal or rejected but published elsewhere papers. It is concluded that, due to the imperfect peer review process (based on human evaluation), if we want to publish a high amount of qualified papers (the ones we seek), several non-qualified papers should also be accepted. Originality/value – The authors conclude that, due to the imperfect peer review process (based on human evaluation), if we want to publish a high amount of qualified papers (the ones we seek), one will also accept several non-qualified papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Belkin and Robertson (1976a) reflected on the ethical implications of theoretical research in information science and warned that there was potential for abuse of knowledge gained by undertaking such research and applying it to information systems. In particular, they identified the domains of advertising and political propaganda that posed particular problems. The purpose of this literature review is to revisit these ideas in the light of recent events in global information systems that demonstrate that their fears were justified. Design/methodology/approach: The authors revisit the theory in information science that Belkin and Robertson used to build their argument, together with the discussion on ethics that resulted from this work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The authors then review recent literature in the field of information systems, specifically information retrieval, social media and recommendation systems that highlight the problems identified by Belkin and Robertson. Findings: Information science theories have been used in conjunction with empirical evidence gathered from user interactions that have been detrimental to both individuals and society. It is argued in the paper that the information science and systems communities should find ways to return control to the user wherever possible, and the ways to achieve this are considered. Research limitations/implications: The ethical issues identified require a multidisciplinary approach with research in information science, computer science, information systems, business, sociology, psychology, journalism, government and politics, etc. required. This is too large a scope to deal with in a literature review, and we focus only on the design and implementation of information systems (Zimmer, 2008a) through an information science and information systems perspective. Practical implications: The authors argue that information systems such as search technologies, social media applications and recommendation systems should be designed with the recipient of the information in mind (Paisley and Parker, 1965), not the sender of that information. Social implications: Information systems designed ethically and with users in mind will go some way to addressing the ill effects typified by the problems for individuals and society evident in global information systems. Originality/value: The authors synthesize the evidence from the literature to provide potential technological solutions to the ethical issues identified, with a set of recommendations to information systems designers and implementers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of whether the often paradoxical and conceptually contradictory discipline of information retrieval OR) can be understood more clearly when it is analyzed from a dialectical perspective. Design/methodology/approach — Conceptual analysis and literature review. Findings — A dialectical understanding of meaning can assist in clarifying some aspects of the complex nature of current IR theory. Research limitations/implications — Philosophy has the potential to explore the conflicts and contradictions in IR and should not be used just as a means of synthesis and resolution. The use of the philosophy of meaning should include a broader understanding of the philosophical oppositions which lie behind the nature of meaning. Originality/value — This paper suggests a new perspective on the role of meaning in IR: the dialectical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose A conceptual model describes important factors within a system and how they relate to one another. They are important because they help to identify system changes that can yield the greatest improvement. Within information retrieval (IR), most research is directed towards multi-document retrieval and a multi-interaction IR user scenario. There are few, if any, IR conceptual models supporting minimal or single-interaction IR (siIR) user scenarios, however the need for siIR systems is growing rapidly. The purpose of this paper is to take the first step towards constructing a task-oriented conceptual model and experimental framework to support siIR research.Design/methodology/approach A first principles approach is employed to develop a task-oriented conceptual model, called bridging information retrieval (BIR). This model is contrasted with the concept of relevance, a central factor within IR research.Findings BIR introduces the central concept of bridging information (BI) as the objective of IR systems. BI is the additional information a user requires to complete a task, beyond their innate knowledge. The relationship between BI and relevance is determined.Research limitations/implications The theoretical basis of BIR is derived axiomatically; however the resulting system evaluation model is speculative.Practical implications The proposed operational framework offers researchers a systematic approach to designing and evaluating siIR systems.Originality/value This work contributes a novel task-oriented IR conceptual model and evaluation framework, both centred around the concept of BI for siIR. It also contributes a novel search task classification method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — This paper sets out to investigate the meaning, role and implications of contextual information associated with digital collections. Design/methodology/approach — This paper is based on an extensive review and analysis of both the scholarly literature from many disciplines about the concept of context and the professional literature (including standards) related to the description of information artifacts. The paper provides an analysis of context, distinguishing three main ways in which that term has been used within the scholarly literature. It then discusses contextual information within digital collections, and presents a framework for contextual information. It goes on to discuss existing standards and guidance documents for encoding information related to the nine classes of contextual entities, concluding with a discussion of potential implications for descriptive practices through the lifecycle of digital objects. Findings — The paper presents a framework for contextual information that is based on nine classes of contextual entities: object, agent, occurrence, purpose, time, place, form of expression, concept/abstraction, and relationship. Research limitations/implications — Research and development about and in support of digital collections will benefit from a clear articulation of the types, roles, importance and elements of contextual information. Practical implications — Future users of digital objects will probably have numerous tools for discovering preserved digital objects relevant to their interests, but making meaningful use and sense of the digital objects will also require capture, collection and management of contextual information. Originality/value — This paper synthesizes and extends a previously diffuse literature, in order to clarify and articulate core concepts in the management of digital collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to resolve a gap in the knowledge of how people with dyslexia interact with information retrieval (IR) systems, specifically an understanding of their information-searching behaviour. Design/methodology/approach - The dyslexia cognitive profile is used to design a logging system, recording the difference between two sets of participants: dyslexic and control users. A standard Okapi interface is used - together with two standard TREC topics - in order to record the information searching behaviour of these users. Findings - Using the log data, the differences in information-searching behaviour of control and dyslexic users, i.e. in the way the two groups interact with Okapi, are established and it also established that qualitative information collected (such as experience etc.) may not be able to account for these differences. Evidence from query variables was unable to distinguish between groups, but differences on topic for the same variables were recorded. Users who view more documents tended to judge more documents as being relevant, in terms of either the user group or topic. Session data indicated that there may be an important difference between the number of iterations used in a search between the user groups, as there may be little effect from the topic on this variable. Originality/value - This is the first study of the effect of dyslexia on information search behaviour, and it provides some evidence to take the field forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe: a new taxonomy of metacognitive skills designed to support the study of metacognition in the context of web searching; a data collection instrument based on the taxonomy; and the results of testing the instrument on a sample of university students and staff. Design/methodology/approach - The taxonomy is based on a review of the literature, and is extended to cover web searching. This forms the basis for the design of the data collection instrument, which is tested with 405 students and staff of Sheffield University. Findings - Subjects regard the range of metacognitive skills focused on as broadly similar. However, a number of significant differences in reported metacognition usage relating to age, gender and discipline. Practical implications - These findings contribute to the long-term aims of the research which are to: develop a model of the actual and potential role of metacognition in web searching, and identify strategic "metacognitive interventions" that can be built into an intelligent information retrieval system, driven by the model, capable of enhancing retrieval effectiveness by compensating for metacognitive weaknesses on the part of the searcher. Originality/value - The value of the paper lies in: the consideration of metacognition in the context of web searching, the presentation of an extensible taxonomy of metacognitive skills, development and testing of a prototype metacognitive inventory, finding of significant differences in reported metacognition usage according to age, gender and discipline, and reflection of the implications of the results for future research into web searching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to discuss the methodological aspects of a study, the results of which are detailed in a second paper. Design/methodology/approach - Indices of search goal revision (or redefinition) were constructed based on the chronological coding of queries logged on the OCLC FirstSearch service. Queries within search sessions were coded according to their conceptual relationships, based on a set of rules designed to identify possible revisions of search goals, as well as strategic reformulations. Given the same user interface, similar types of user, and large datasets, it was assumed that the number of strategic reformulations would be reasonably uniform across databases, so that the indices could be regarded as indicators of relative amounts of goal revision. Findings - The reliability of the coding used to construct the indices of goal redefinition was tested through parallel coding, and confirmed. Differences between the indices for various databases, on the other hand, were found to be statistically significant, allowing for the conclusion that the indices were able to show differences in the amount of goal redefinition occurring, given the assumption of similar levels of strategic reformulations across databases. Originality/value - Transaction log analysis has mostly focused on syntactic issues; few analyses have examined the semantic content of queries or contextualised individual queries as part of an evolving search session. However, this paper shows that although transaction log analysis is a relatively indirect means of examining users' thoughts and intentions during their interaction with an information retrieval system, logs that provide sufficiently rich data may, in certain controlled situations, be used to provide deeper insights into information retrieval behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this paper is first to highlight some of the social phenomena that are driving the design of people-centred information solutions; second, to develop a broad ontology of information behaviour research that serves to identify factors that should be taken into account when designing such solutions. Finally, the author illustrates how this knowledge is being applied in the design of people-centred inclusive information products and services. Design/methodology/approach — The author draws on the information behaviour literature to highlight key drivers and to develop and illustrate the ontological framework. The significance of this framework is then demonstrated by providing examples of how this knowledge has been applied in the design of people-centred inclusive information products and services. Research limitations/implications — This is a conceptual paper and based on the informed, subjective analysis of previous research. However, relating theory to practice does provide an indication of the validity of this conception of one's knowledge of information behaviour to people-centred design. Originality/value — The paper helps to provide an overview of information behaviour research, the nature of the domain and the levels of abstraction. The article also makes a direct link between the theoretical world of information behaviour research and the empirical world of people-centred design. Hence, it also presents a case for the importance of the body of knowledge that people in information science refer to as information behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — To propose a comprehensive and semi-automatic method for constructing or updating knowledge organization tools such as thesauri. Design/methodology/approach — The paper proposes a comprehensive methodology for thesaurus construction and maintenance combining shallow NLP with a clustering algorithm and an information visualization interface. The resulting system TermWatch, extracts terms from a text collection, mines semantic relations between them using complementary linguistic approaches and clusters terms using these semantic relations. The clusters are mapped onto a 2D using an integrated visualization tool. Findings — The clusters formed exhibit the different relations necessary to populate a thesaurus or ontology: synonymy, generic/specific and relatedness. The clusters represent, for a given term, its closest neighbours in terms of semantic relations. Practical implications — This could change the way in which information professionals (librarians and documentalists) undertake knowledge organization tasks. TermWatch can be useful either as a starting point for grasping the conceptual organization of knowledge in a huge text collection without having to read the texts, then actually serving as a suggestive tool for populating different hierarchies of a thesaurus or an ontology because its clusters are based on semantic relations. Originality/value — This lies in several points: combined use of linguistic relations with an adapted clustering algorithm, which is scalable and can handle sparse data. The paper proposes a comprehensive approach to semantic relations acquisition whereas existing studies often use one or two approaches. The domain knowledge maps produced by the system represents an added advantage over existing approaches to automatic thesaurus construction in that clusters are formed using semantic relations between domain terms. Thus while offering a meaningful synthesis of the information contained in the original corpus through clustering, the results can be used for knowledge organization tasks (thesaurus building and ontology population) The system also constitutes a platform for performing several knowledge-oriented tasks like science and technology watch, textmining, query refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Seeking and retrieving information is an essential aspect of knowledge workers' activities during problem-solving and decision-making tasks. In recent years, user-oriented Information Seeking (IS) research methods rooted in the social sciences have been integrated with Information Retrieval (IR) research approaches based on computer science to capitalize on the strengths of each field. Given this background, the objective is to develop a topic-needs variation determination technique based on the observations of IS&R theories. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, implicit and explicit methods for identifying users' evolving topic-needs are proposed. Knowledge-intensive tasks performed by academic researchers are used to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed methods. The paper conducted two sets of experiments to demonstrate and verify the importance of determining changes in topic-needs during the IS&R process. Findings – The results in terms of precision and discounted cumulated gain (DCG) values show that the proposed Stage-Topic_W (G,S) and Stage-Topic-Interaction methods can retrieve relevant document sets for users engaged in long-term tasks more efficiently and effectively than traditional methods. Practical implications – The improved precision of the proposed methods means that they can retrieve more relevant documents for the searcher. Accordingly, the results of this research have implications for enhancing the search function in enterprise content management (ECM) applications to support the execution of projects/tasks by professionals and facilitate effective ECM. Originality/value – The model observes a user's search behavior pattern to determine the personal factors (e.g. changes in the user's cognitive status), and content factors (e.g. changes in topic-needs) simultaneously. The objective is to capture changes in the user's information needs precisely so that evolving information needs can be satisfied in a timely manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how different aspects of an assessor's context, in particular their knowledge of a search topic, their interest in the search topic and their confidence in assessing relevance for a topic, affect the relevance judgements made and the assessor's ability to predict which documents they will assess as being relevant. Design/methodology/approach - The study was conducted as part of the Text REtrieval Conference (TREC) FIARD track. Using a specially constructed questionnaire information was sought on TREC assessors' personal context and, using the TREC assessments gathered, the responses were correlated to the questionnaire questions and the final relevance decisions. Findings - This study found that each of the three factors (interest, knowledge and confidence) had an affect on how many documents were assessed as relevant and the balance between how many documents were marked as marginally or highly relevant. Also these factors are shown to affect an assessors' ability to predict what information they will finally mark as being relevant. Research limitations/implications - The major limitation is that the research is conducted within the TREC initiative. This means that we can report on results but cannot report on discussions with the assessors. The research implications are numerous but mainly on the effect of personal context on the outcomes of a user study. Practical implications - One major consequence is that we should take more account of how we construct search tasks for HR evaluation to create tasks that are interesting and relevant to experimental subjects. Originality/value - Examining different search variables within one study to compare the relative effects on these variables on the search outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of LexiURL as a Web intelligence tool for collecting and analysing links to digital libraries, focusing specifically on the National electronic Library for Health (NeLH). Design/methodology/approach - The Web intelligence techniques in this study are a combination of link analysis (web structure mining), web server log file analysis (web usage mining), and text analysis (web content mining), utilizing the power of commercial search engines and drawing upon the information science fields of bibliometrics and webometrics. LexiURL is a computer program designed to calculate summary statistics for lists of links or URLs. Its output is a series of standard reports, for example listing and counting all of the different domain names in the data. Findings - Link data, when analysed together with user transaction log files (i.e. Web referring domains) can provide insights into who is using a digital library and when, and who could be using the digital library if they are "surfing" a particular part of the Web; in this case any site that is linked to or colinked with the NeLH. This study found that the NeLH was embedded in a multifaceted Web context, including many governmental, educational, commercial and organisational sites, with the most interesting being sites from the.edu domain, representing American Universities. Not many links directed to the NeLH were followed on September 25, 2005 (the date of the log file analysis and link extraction analysis), which means that users who access the digital library have been arriving at the site via only a few select links, bookmarks and search engine searches, or non-electronic sources. Originality/value - A number of studies concerning digital library users have been carried out using log file analysis as a research tool. Log files focus on real-time user transactions; while LexiURL can be used to extract links and colinks associated with a digital library's growing Web network. This Web network is not recognized often enough, and can be a useful indication of where potential users are surfing, even if they have not yet specifically visited the NeLH site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to examine search goal redefinition during users' interaction with information retrieval systems. Design/methodology/approach - The study utilized transaction logs from the OCLC FirstSearch service. Within each search session, logged queries were coded chronologically, according to their conceptual relationships, and indices of goal redefinition were constructed. Redefinition levels for different databases were compared, and certain features were isolated for examination as possible redefinition factors. Findings - The transaction log analysis showed that different databases induced goal redefinition to different extents and identified several factors which can contribute to goal redefinition, including the presence of abstracts and hyperlinking descriptors. On the other hand, no evidence was found to indicate that abstract length has much effect on redefinition, nor hit rate or retrievability of records. Practical implications - The research needs to be followed up using other methodologies and other information retrieval systems. A range of other possible factors affecting goal redefinition should be investigated. Originality/value - The paper shows that system feedback affects not only strategy, but also higher levels of information seeking behaviour interaction. This aspect of user-system interaction has rarely been researched. An index of goal redefinition and an interpretative form of transactional log analysis are put forward as means by which it may be investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Scholarly monographs are a major information resource in the humanities. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of abstracting and indexing (A&I) databases and library catalogues (OPACs) for subject retrieval of these monographs. Design/methodology/approach - A sample of monographs in philosophy was checked in the Philosopher's Index database and in library OPACs to establish how many subject terms were assigned per page of text. Findings - The results highlighted the inadequate indexing of monographs in these databases. Various methods of improving subject access are discussed, including enriched subject content of database records. The search potential of full-text databases is examined, with specific reference to two such databases, Oxford Scholarship Online and JSTOR. Practical implications - It is suggested that current and planned digitization projects need to incorporate improved search facilities, either by automatic generation of subject-rich document surrogates, or by the incorporation of author-generated metadata. Originality/value - This paper clarifies the current problems related to subject retrieval of scholarly monographs at a time when the launch of major digitization projects calls for urgent attention to this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — To report on initial work carried out on a Metadata Options Appraisal undertaken for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in the context of plans to create and manage complex digital objects called Interpretive Journeys, PDA-based multimedia guides to Park tours. Design/methodology/approach — After some initial work, a phased approach was adopted. In Phase I (reported here), metadata schema for managing structurally complex digital objects were researched to provide a range of appropriate options. Their characteristics were then matched against the Park's general requirements as determined through discussions with staff and an examination of relevant documentation. Findings — It was determined that the METS metadata schema met Park requirements for managing Interpretive Journeys at a general level and could be used both, to inform the development of the planned Digital Asset Management System (an early priority), and to act as the main basis of a framework for determining a detailed metadata solution for the Park. Research limitations/implications — Further work is required in Phase II to determine the detailed metadata requirement for the Park. Practical implications — A useful guide to dealing with a range of management and metadata issues associated with managing complex digital objects, and to managing projects where guidance on metadata requirements is needed before the objects to be described are available. Originality/value — This paper offers an introduction to the management and metadata issues raised by Interpretive Journeys and digital composites of similar complexity, and an indication of how METS addresses these at a general level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate how readers assess relevance of retrieved documents in a foreign language they know well compared with their native language, and whether work-task scenario descriptions have effect on the assessment process. Design/methodology/approach - Queries, test collections, and relevance assessments were used from the 2002 Interactive CLEF. Swedish first-language speakers, fluent in English, were given simulated information-seeking scenarios and presented with retrieval results in both languages. Twenty-eight subjects in four groups were asked to rate the retrieved text documents by relevance. A two-level work-task scenario description framework was developed and applied to facilitate the study of context effects on the assessment process. Findings - Relevance assessment takes longer in a foreign language than in the user first language. The quality of assessments by comparison with pre-assessed results is inferior to those made in the users' first language. Work-task scenario descriptions had an effect on the assessment process, both by measured access time and by self-report by subjects. However, effects on results by traditional relevance ranking were detectable. This may be an argument for extending the traditional IR experimental topical relevance measures to cater for context effects. Originality/value - An extended two-level work-task scenario description framework was developed and applied. Contextual aspects had an effect on the relevance assessment process. English texts took longer to assess than Swedish and were assessed less well, especially for the most difficult queries. The IR research field needs to close this gap and to design information access systems with users' language competence in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses the design, development and evaluation of a task-based digital library, the Digital Work Environment (DWE), for the academic community of higher education institutions (HEI) with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as a test case. Three different information organization approaches (alphabetical subject category and task-based) were used to organize the wide range of heterogeneous information resources that were interfaced to DWE. A user evaluation study using a series of task scenarios was carried out to gauge the effectiveness and usefulness of DWE and these information organization approaches. The time taken by respondents to identify and access the relevant information resources for individual tasks was also measured The findings show that the task-based approach took the least time in identifying information resources. Regression analysis of information resource location time with gender, age, computer experience and digital resource experience of the participants are also reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to compare the evaluation of search result lists and documents, in particular evaluation criteria, elements, association between criteria and elements, pre/post and evaluation activities, and the time spent on evaluation. Design/methodology/approach – The study analyzed the data collected from 31 general users through prequestionnaires, think aloud protocols and logs, and post questionnaires. Types of evaluation criteria, elements, associations between criteria and elements, evaluation activities and their associated pre/post activities, and time were analyzed based on open coding. Findings – The study identifies the similarities and differences of list and document evaluation by analyzing 21 evaluation criteria applied, 13 evaluation elements examined, pre/post and evaluation activities performed and time spent. In addition, the authors also explored the time spent in evaluating lists and documents for different types of tasks. Research limitations/implications – This study helps researchers understand the nature of list and document evaluation. Additionally, this study connects elements that participants examined to criteria they applied, and further reveals problems associated with the lack of integration between list and document evaluation. The findings of this study suggest more elements, especially at list level, be available to support users applying their evaluation criteria. Integration of list and document evaluation and integration of pre, evaluation and post evaluation activities for the interface design is the absolute solution for effective evaluation. Originality/value – This study fills a gap in current research in relation to the comparison of list and document evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to examine the impact on usage of the journal Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) moving to an open access model. A major objective was to examine the impact of open access in the context of other initiatives that have improved accessibility to scholarly journals. The study also aims to demonstrate the potential of deep log analysis for monitoring change in usage over time. Design/methodology/approach - Data were gathered from the logs for the period 2003-June 2005 and analysed using deep log methods. The data were analysed to provide the following information on use: type of item viewed; usage over time; usage for individual journal issues; usage per type of article; age of article. Usage analyses were further examined with regard to the following user characteristics: subscriber/non-subscriber; referrer link employed, organisational affiliation; geographical location. Findings - The analysis showed that the rise in use of NAR over the survey period (140 per cent) could largely be attributed to the opening up of the site to search engines and that the move to OA had a relatively small influence on driving usage up further (less than 10 per cent). Originality/value - The study for the first time thoroughly analyses the usage data of a significant experimental open access journal and reveals the huge impact of search engines on driving up usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this study is to examine the use of formality indicators in chat reference interchanges within the context of politeness theory, with its corollaries of face threat and social relationship development. Design/methodology/approach — This discourse analysis identifies the syntactic and content indicators and patterns of formality levels in a purposive sample of 402 chat transcripts (covering 6,572 minutes) from one academic year at a large, US, public university. Findings — Syntactic formality markers include regular use of contractions, slang, sentence fragments, and non-standard punctuation as well as limited use of acronyms and abbreviations with rare use of emoticons. Content-based markers included apologies, self-disclosure, and expressions of extreme need. Use patterns are related to the level of responsibility assumed by the librarian as well as the interview stages. Research limitations/implications — A limited data source and potential coder bias are the two limitations of this study. The research implications point to the need for chat reference librarians to assume greater control of formality nuances in order to encourage a more effective search for the user. Practical implications — The fundamentals of politeness theory, particularly in terms of formality indicators, should be incorporated into staff training and behavioral standards for reference librarians. While future research is needed to determine the most effective means of employing this theoretical construct, this study implies that a self-reflective, culturally sensitive use of the nuances of formality can enhance the user's experience. Originality/value — This study is the first to systematically examine formality indicators in the context of politeness theory. The use of two coders, a full academic year's worth of data, and a substantial sample provide great depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to explore a method for the determination of users' representations of search engines, formed during their interaction with these systems. Determines the extent to which these elicited ‘mental models’ indicate the system aspects of importance to the user and from this their evaluative view of these tools. Design/methodology/approach - The repertory grid technique is used to elicit a set of constructs that define facets within the mental model of an individual. A related technique of laddering then considers each of the user's constructs to determine the reasons for its importance within the user's mental model. Findings - The model derived from the qualitative data comprises three hierarchical strata and conveys the interrelations between basic system description, evaluative description, and the key evaluations of ease, efficiency, effort and effectiveness. Two additional layers relating to the perceived process and the experience of emotion are also discussed. Research limitations/implications - Ten participants is considered to be optimum for obtaining constructs in a repertory grid, but limits the findings to the context of the user group and the systems used in this study. Originality/value - The methodology has not previously been used to determine mental models of search engines and from these to understand users' evaluative view of systems. The resulting model of key evaluations with the conjunctions of procedural elements suggests a framework for further research to evaluate search engines from the user perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To show that stem generation compares well with lemmatization as a morphological tool for a highly inflectional language for IR purposes in a best-match retrieval system. Design/methodology/approach - Effects of three different morphological methods - lemmatization, stemming and stem production - for Finnish are compared in a probabilistic IR environment (INQUERY). Evaluation is done using a four-point relevance scale which is partitioned differently in different test settings. Findings - Results show that stem production, a lighter method than morphological lemmatization, compares well with lemmatization in a best-match IR environment. Differences in performance between stem production and lemmatization are small and they are not statistically significant in most of the tested settings. It is also shown that hitherto a rather neglected method of morphological processing for Finnish, stemming, performs reasonably well although the stemmer used - a Porter stemmer implementation - is far from optimal for a morphologically complex language like Finnish. In another series of tests, the effects of compound splitting and derivational expansion of queries are tested. Practical implications - Usefulness of morphological lemmatization and stem generation for IR purposes can be estimated with many factors. On the average P-R level they seem to behave very close to each other in a probabilistic IR system. Thus, the choice of the used method with highly inflectional languages needs to be estimated along other dimensions too. Originality/value - Results are achieved using Finnish as an example of a highly inflectional language. The results are of interest for anyone who is interested in processing of morphological variation of a highly inflected language for JR purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]